If I’m not mistaken mom is leaving.  

The first clue ... the house has been a beehive of activity today: washing, ironing, getting bits and pieces together from here and there and now tonight mom was packing a suitcase. 

Second clue ... I saw an airplane ticket from Air Canada.

Third clue ... mom is on edge.  She has flown before, but she’s never flown with Air Canada and she’s never flown in an airbus.  I overheard her talking and it seems she doesn’t trust that airbus.  She’s always flown with a jumbo jet or something and apparently there are quite a few differences between an airbus and a jumbo.

For one, the plane is not as big and doesn’t fly as fast.  Where it takes a jumbo only 6 hours to get to Belgium, it will take this airbus 7 hours. 
A jumbo has 4 engines, while an airbus only has 2.

To make the flight even longer, there is a 1,5 hour stop in Montreal, making the journey in total 8,5 hours. 

The reason for the trip can only be a phone call mom received last Wednesday, at 6:15 a.m. mind you, when we were all still fast asleep.  Shortly after she answered the phone, I overheard her saying to Dieter, her son, “Your grandfather is dead”. 

Since then they’ve been running around, calling and emailing like crazy.  I don’t know the details, because I don’t see and hear everything, but it’s been pretty intense.

And so now mom is leaving.  She’s going to Belgium for her dad’s funeral.  It’s gonna be strange and lonely here without her.