Summer Solstice, 2025

I watched the sun set tonight. It went down at 9:02 pm in Toronto, giving us over 15 hours of daylight. The last time I watched the sun set was on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. I could not watch it on the Summer Solstice in June 2024 because I was still in captivity (long-term care).

I went into captivity in November 2023. My blood pressure was dropping, causing me to faint. The condition is called syncope. The medical profession subjected me to all manner of tests and could not find out why my blood pressure dropped. They also gave me a test for dementia, and I scored 14 out of 30. I do not remember taking the test. The last time I fainted was in May 2024.

I was not expected to get better and was told to prepare to live the rest of my life in captivity. But I do not always do what is expected of me. I ate more bananas and gradually improved. I stopped fainting and scored 30 out of 30 on the dementia test when given it nine months later. (At first, I was ecstatic over my perfect score, but then I realized this was a test for dementia. I had nothing to be proud about getting a perfect score.)

I am still in captivity, but the wheels are slowly in motion to have me move to an apartment in the independent-living section of the same facility. The social worker said, “We’ve had many people go from an apartment in the independent section to long-term care, but you will be the first to go from long-term care to an apartment in the independent-living section.” Sometimes, I like to do things backwards.

Although I am still in captivity, I can pretty much come and go when I please, which allowed me to follow my tradition of watching the sun set on the Summer Solstice.

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