The Thai Family Coming To Town - 2nd Visit

[Frank La Rue]

About 21 months ago a ran a thread about our experiences being made when my Thai wife's sister and children came and visited us for 4 weeks. I posted on-line, real - time in the evening after each day's event. It turned out to be a highly enjoyable experience for us all:

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We spent time with wife's family in Kanchanaburi province July/ August 2015, one evening as we all where together in a local Restaurant outside Tha Maka the conversation turned to the visit, wife's sister Pom was there and her children too, to elaborate on what they had experienced. As their story-telling progressed with pictures on their mobile phones to go, the conversation kind of seeded an idea in the minds of my wife's aunt and her husband.

They own the business of manufacturing budda statues, which feeds the family very well, and have handed the day - day - operation over to their son Eek, who has done a great job modernizing the plant and establishing a distributor Network accross Thailand.

Hence, his Mother and Father (my wife's aunt and uncle) allow themselves to travel a bit.

They have been to Japan last year and some other places. They had in mind to go to South Korea in October.

What if they took that time and money to visit Norway instead?

This part of the conversation took place in Thai with my wife so I couldn't follow, however I got snippets of it from wifey's sister. They wanted her to come allong, since she has visited us twice and could act as travel companion and guide.

These are genuinely nice people and I could only see advantages to our relationship and bonding for the larger family.

We still had 2 weeks in Thailand before going back to Norway. Over the following days this project evolved very fast and within a week they had drummed up an entire lot of 8 Thais who came forward to join the travelling party!

.......... and all with my wife's blessing!

I was never really consulted in the matter but have learned to take this things in my stride.

By luck and some inheritance of old furniture I knew we would have enpough "beds" in the house as there are several sofas converible into beds, providing this lot was prepared to share sleeping accomodation.

In the end there were 3 aunts, the son of one aunt, the husband of the elder aunt (my wife's mother is the oldes of four sisters), my wife's sister and two close female friends of the elder aunt, who are considered part of the "family", whom I have met on many occassions as they are often invited to join us when we have the family dinners in Kanchanaburi province.

We entered the last week of our stay, having return tickets for the coming Monday. On the Friday night my wife came to me and said - can you feel my breast here - there seem to be a lump?

Indeed there was.

Wife and sister got off the several hospitals on Saturday and Sunday for a check, however none of those working with breast cancer diagnosis were at work so she did not get to verify. Other doctors without specialization in the field did not want to make an diagnosis.

Our flight was 00:55 Monsday morning so we had to make a decision Sunday afternoon whether she would stay on and see a doctor on the Monday, or come with me to Norway for the consultation with our local GP.

Our son's schooling was due to commence at the end of the coming week, so what to do -should he stay with her as they both are very attached to each other, and what to do if the diagnosis turned out to be what we hoped it would not be?

In the end we all returned to Norway together.

I had on the Friday managed to book an appointment with the GP in the afternoon the Monday we would land, the time difference between Thailand and Norway worked in my favor.

We got on the plane Monday morning and where home in the House arround 09:00 Monday Norwegian time.

by 13:00 hours we had the appointment.

Our local GP could not say for certain, other than that it could be breast cancer but did not have to be. He moved very fast and 3 days later, on the Thursday, we were in the Brest Cancer Screaning centre at the regional Hospital of Drammen. There is no previous history of cancer in her family - so her family and indeed the travelling party did not believe at all that this could be it.

The nurses ran some tests on my wife. Subsequently she was asked to let them take a small tissue sample by means of local anestetics and a fine cut. The sample was analyzed there and then. Within 1/2 an hour we were asked to join a doctor and a nurse in a consultation room.

The Doctor looked at us both and said "Mrs La Rue - we have got to inform you that you have Breast Cancer"

To be continued.

[Frank La Rue]

I realized, for the sake of story - telling to share with all that my wife was operated 2 weeks later. She has another 7 weeks to go with light type of chemo therapy, and we're done.

We were told quite early that her prognosis was excellent - but there was a job to do, i.e. undergo treatment. As this thread is primarily about the family's 2nd visit and not about my wife's cancer I fast forward to the conclusion so the cancer - story doesn't over shadow the story of the visit.

[Frank La Rue]

This was last week of August and the family were planning to arive Saturday October the 8th. Several of them did not have passports as they had never travelled outside of Thailand and I made a mental note that these old folks all in their 60ties moved with a lot of agility and speed. Passports were aranged for within a week and a got a spreadsheet via email with all necessary personal data for me to help out with the forms required to be filled in and certified by the local police in my municipality.

First everyone was in denial that my wife could have been diagnozed with cancer, but the surgery went a head August 27th slovly it sunk in. The operation was a success, but I did several times ask my wife if having 8 of them wasn't a bit overdoing it consdidering the news of her cancer and the subsequent treatment, which been known to no-one when we discussed the visit with them whilst in Thailand. But no - she was adamant about going ahead with the visit so I did not try to push any other arrangement.

Paper work was sent off by me for my sister - in - law to take to the Norwegian embassy, tickets were reserved, the visas were all granted within a couple of weeks, tickets paid by the son of uncle and aunt with the budda - factory. As their business has prospered the last 5 years the young son, well he is 46, they have taken good care of everybody.

I have made a mental note for us Farangs who feel we always pay, that as this amily has become prosperous and can afford themselves several Mercedes Benz'es and holidays abroad, they actually do put their moeny where their mouths are. Its not me always paying anymore - they take care of everyone financially and oftentimes large dinners are paid by the son, not by me. We have an agreement where we pay every 2nd time for dinners.

In the interim before their arrival we came to the Hospital for my wife's 1st chemo therapy. In advance we had agreed with my wide's sister that she would stay on for a month to support us during the chemo therapy treatment period.

The first session with the subsequent side effects was kind of a traumatic experience as som much is spolen about it in the public domain and also by the medical personnel, but we got throuugh it and wife had one week of recovry befire the travelling party would arrive. As they would stay for 9 days only, they would be gone by the next chemo therapy, whilst her sister was stying on.

It belongs to the story that my wife was quite emotionally up - and - down after the 1st treatment and did not want to go on with it, however everybody of her family gently nudged her to do so and in the end I struck a deal with my wife's sister - in - law, she stayed on until Mid December for the entire period of the hard chemo therapy. In return I compensated her for loss of income by paying her 50K baht per month. She did a great job of taking care of our son, cooking thai food for her sister and the two sisters enjoyed eating thai meals together. The coincidence of the illness and the visit turned out to be a great blessing in disguise. with regards to my wife's motivation and emotional strenght.

Saturday Morning I met up at 07:00 hours to pick them up at the airport. As all could not come with m in y Jeep, they had agreed whom to go with my sister - in - law on the airport train and whom to go wih me.
It takes 40+ minutes by car to my house from the airport at times with no traffic and 47 minutes with the air por train so I took as many suitcases as possible in my car, got the oldest aunt and the uncle with one more to the house and could go straight to the trainstation 2 minutes away and pick up the others.

Half an hour later several of the elder ladies were bussy in the kitchen cooking lavish Thai food for all and everyone were in great spirits:

20151011_170950.jpg (133.02 KiB) Viewed 3232 times

20151011_170950.jpg (133.02 KiB) Viewed 3232 times