My friend Carolyn, who lives in our apartment building, was being repatriated to Canada at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic with her three children (9, 7 and 2 years) and husband. They stayed in the hotel apartment all that time, waiting for the situation to develop and whether or not they would be sent back to Colombo.

When they said goodbye to us, she gave us about 70 eggs, 12 boxes of milk, large glasses of mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese and broth, and Emilka was watching the big brown bear from their daughter, so that he is not alone in the apartment.

They were given the green light to return to Colombo a week before the departure from Ottawa on 12^th of August. The car happened to be in underground garages. The fruit and vegetables man, every week settled with his goods during the curfew near the car, so you can imagine how dusty the car was and thanks to the birds using the car as a target, it was messed up extra. Steve washed it twice and their driver, who was still being paid the entire period of absence, also washed it twice and he gave the car a run so that the engine would not be inactive for long period.

The keys to the apartment were brought to me on Monday 10^th August, so I had 3 days to clean it as I promised to Carolyn.

After a year, I was holding a vacuum cleaner in my hand, and I so enjoyed it, I didn\’t mind that I vacuumed for almost two hours, because their apartment is all over half of the block, as if three apartments were connected in one. They have 4 bathrooms with toilets, 3 large rooms, two living rooms, a dining room and a games room. Mopping the floor took more than an hour.

I bought them fresh pastries and some fruit, milk, butter, eggs, and baked a carrot cake and inserted a welcome fireworks candle. When I carried all the goods to their apartment in the evening and wanted to turn on the lights so that they would not come to the dark apartment, as they were arriving at night, I found two painters there who were painting gloomy walls! I thought I am going to scream, knowing, that the day before that I cleaned and wiped the floor there and they are painting at the last minute !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, Sri Lanka!

I breathed, calmed myself down as the painters promised to clean it up.

The family arrived as expected, although 2 suitcases remained in Montreal and did not make it in transit, but they were delivered two days after arrival. The children liked the fireworks candle, so at least they will remember something special from coming back to Colombo. Now they have to be locked up in isolation of their home for 14 days, so Emilka always takes them what they need, rings the door bell and runs away so they can\’t see each other as that would be breaking the rules. She has kindly brought me a nice linen top, much needed hair sprays, smoked cheese and some sweets for the kids.

I can’t wait for her to finish isolation on Friday 28th August and go and see her, to listen to all her stories she has to tell me and have a coffee again together. She may allow me to use her hoover again, if I feel the need!