Chapter 19: Postscript

Toula Katriona Florakis was born 3rd June 2021, to Eleni and Mario. They were thrilled to have a loud and healthy baby girl, as were Kat and I, and our family. I’m so pleased for her. Michelle assisted with the birth – part of her course this year is to follow a number of new mothers through their pregnancy and be there for the birth.

Kat and I have been nominated as the godparents. This wasn’t without controversy since we are not Greek Orthodox Christians, but nothing Mario and Eleni’s families said began to change their minds on this. In the end, they stopped grumbling since their families know what we did for Eleni, and we weren’t upset about the grumbling – it just increased the honour.

The plan had been to tell Kat about the conception when she first held the baby, but that plan didn’t happen – Eleni really wanted it to be then, but we were there with her so quickly after the birth, and she was just so exhausted, we didn’t do it. It was kind of a quick reminder of what parenthood is like – you might make plans, but you have to be flexible.

Like us, really. Zara’s mother never properly recovered – trapped by her conflicting love and hate of Zara’s father; the second time round, she made no mistake with her suicide. That was a really sad funeral; they were firmly estranged from their families, so Zara herself ran the small funeral for her sisters, and a few school friends, and all of us, of course. Her sisters now live with us. Where do they sleep? The only beds we had left were in the camper trailer, and it’s cold out there in winter. Michael’s still in his tent, but after they tried to sleep five of them in there, he finally agreed to upgrade to an indoor room. Hopefully it won’t be too long till they have their own space – we got the kids to pull out their house designs, and get serious, and the great – and very creative – building project commenced. I really think Tim will end up being an architect – he’s overseeing the entire thing – plans, approvals etc. Lem is doing most of the building work, working under the builder who built our house in the first place.

Sal quit her job, and they’re going to move back to our place, to a tiny house in an adapted shipping container out the back for now, while Sal sets up her own business as a life coach for abused women. Her first two customers were the woman from the restaurant who offered Michelle all that money, and one of those girls on the beach (she managed to get my phone number while I was teasing Kat), but she’s picking up customers quickly. I think Sal will do a wonderful job of it, actually.

I know that at some stage we’ll have to stop picking up strays, but I don’t know how we’ll do that. Tig’s marriage is getting worse, not better...

But back to Toula. Eleni announced that she had to visit Zara at our place on the way home from hospital with Toula to pick up some company paperwork. Kat demanded that I intervene and tell Eleni not to be ridiculous, and was quite concerned when I did not.

Mario and Eleni brought Toula up our stairs, and were immediately surrounded by a wall of love – our kids were just beside themselves, and they set up camp in the loungeroom. I worried that Eleni should be home settling, but honestly, she had anything she wanted right here, including our wonderful showers and a loving six hand massage from Kat, Michelle and Zara in the wet area while Toula slept. And she said there’s no need to worry about clothes hassles around breast feeding at our house, whereas her family will be there when she gets home, and they’re not on board with the naked thing – yet, though they needed to be soon.