Sunset Manor, Here I Come!
In today’s For Better or For Worse, Iris has begun to lay the groundwork for Grandpa Jim to go into the Sunset Manor. It seems obvious now, from the standard way Lynn does her plotting these days, that Grandpa Jim’s second stroke occurred for no other reason than to get Grandpa Jim into a long-term care facility.
I remember when Mike and Deanna moved into their new apartment in Toronto in 2005 and in short order they met the Kelpfroths, saw Melville Kelpfroth smoking a cigar in the very same panel where Mira Sobinski pointed out that she didn’t like the fire escape leading into the apartment. The plot elements were all there for the cause of and rescue from the apartment fire, set up in a few weeks. Then Lynn Johnston dilly-dallied around for 18 months before the fire occurred, so that the only people who would remember those initial clues were fiendishly-obsessed, detail-oriented people like me.
As I look back on it now, Jim went into stroke #2 and almost immediately Elly told Connie about Iris making reservations for Sunset Manor 2 years ago. The proximity of the plot points is typical of Lynn’s predictive style of writing, even if the idea of making a reservation for a long-term health facility in Toronto 2 years ago is ridiculous with the system in place in the health care system for allocating those facilities.
In this week’s sequence we are getting more information which is going to push Grandpa Jim in that direction. Grandpa Jim is not getting any better and Iris admits there is nothing she can do about it. The doctor blames Grandpa Jim’s depression, but when Iris unloaded the “he drifts into the past now” bomb, I was immediately reminded of my grandmother’s mental state just before she passed away, when she regularly referred to any young man in the room (which I was at the time) as her long-deceased brother Kenneth, who drowned when he was 16.
Then when Iris reveals she has placed a picture of Marian beside Grandpa Jim, there was a certain element of sadness to it that might have touched me, had it not been for the final panel shtick comparing rings on fingers to love in heart. That soft-hearted, faux-sentiment forced my cynical side to take over again.
What I noticed however, was not so much the unrelenting self-sacrifice which has typified the character of Iris since September, 2006 (stroke #1); but the idea now being presented of her separation or mental replacement from Grandpa Jim. In other words, if Grandpa Jim was being taken care of in a long-term facility and Iris was not there, but the picture of Marian was, would Jim even know the difference? Would Jim forget Iris because she is not a part of "how things used to be"? Jim is probably not at that stage yet, but Lynn Johnston seems to be putting the sequence together to get there. Now if she could just put it together without having those awful final panel jokes, that would really be something.
I remember when Mike and Deanna moved into their new apartment in Toronto in 2005 and in short order they met the Kelpfroths, saw Melville Kelpfroth smoking a cigar in the very same panel where Mira Sobinski pointed out that she didn’t like the fire escape leading into the apartment. The plot elements were all there for the cause of and rescue from the apartment fire, set up in a few weeks. Then Lynn Johnston dilly-dallied around for 18 months before the fire occurred, so that the only people who would remember those initial clues were fiendishly-obsessed, detail-oriented people like me.
As I look back on it now, Jim went into stroke #2 and almost immediately Elly told Connie about Iris making reservations for Sunset Manor 2 years ago. The proximity of the plot points is typical of Lynn’s predictive style of writing, even if the idea of making a reservation for a long-term health facility in Toronto 2 years ago is ridiculous with the system in place in the health care system for allocating those facilities.
In this week’s sequence we are getting more information which is going to push Grandpa Jim in that direction. Grandpa Jim is not getting any better and Iris admits there is nothing she can do about it. The doctor blames Grandpa Jim’s depression, but when Iris unloaded the “he drifts into the past now” bomb, I was immediately reminded of my grandmother’s mental state just before she passed away, when she regularly referred to any young man in the room (which I was at the time) as her long-deceased brother Kenneth, who drowned when he was 16.
Then when Iris reveals she has placed a picture of Marian beside Grandpa Jim, there was a certain element of sadness to it that might have touched me, had it not been for the final panel shtick comparing rings on fingers to love in heart. That soft-hearted, faux-sentiment forced my cynical side to take over again.
What I noticed however, was not so much the unrelenting self-sacrifice which has typified the character of Iris since September, 2006 (stroke #1); but the idea now being presented of her separation or mental replacement from Grandpa Jim. In other words, if Grandpa Jim was being taken care of in a long-term facility and Iris was not there, but the picture of Marian was, would Jim even know the difference? Would Jim forget Iris because she is not a part of "how things used to be"? Jim is probably not at that stage yet, but Lynn Johnston seems to be putting the sequence together to get there. Now if she could just put it together without having those awful final panel jokes, that would really be something.
posted by howard at 9:52 PM
17 Comments:
Yes. Her stupid attempt at levity is spoiling what would otherwise be a touching, albeit predictable, story. She didn't used to be like that. She used to tell dramatic stories straight because she cared about what she was writing more than she cared about getting the attagirl from Coffee Talkers. Not any more. Now she's gotta do what she thinks Schulz would have done in this situation, blithely ignoring that the Peanuts gang never had to face anything worse than a bad case of what I think was strep throat. And even then, the closest thing he came to a boffo punchline was Lucy calling Charlie Brown a blockhead for getting sick and making her worry about him.
Plus if Iris is convinced that Jim has one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel, and therefore will be reacquainted with Marian soon, in the great beyond, could be she's conditioning him for the reunion. ::shudder::
Oh, yeah. She obviously realizes what we do because we know how Lynn's mind works: when Jim waltzes off into the afterlife, Marian is gonna be his dance partner.
My friend Howard has helped me understand what’s really going on. Mother Iris Teresa is no longer willing to care for her second husband and will be moving Grandpa Jim - ASAP - to a nursing facility.
Iris’s declaration that this isn’t about the ring on my finger but about the love in my heart, is wishful thinking. She is trying to justify her decision, while still keeping the title of “Saint Iris.”
I am waiting with bated breath for the strip where Saint Iris declares: “My darling Jim and love of my life, I’m doing this for your own good!”
Anon NYC
DreadedCandiru2
Oh, yeah. She obviously realizes what we do because we know how Lynn's mind works: when Jim waltzes off into the afterlife, Marian is gonna be his dance partner
If Lynn were to kill off Grandpa Jim, I can easily see a Lynn-written strip with ghostly Jim and Marian dancing away together. Lynn hasn’t done Marian like the Family Circus dead grandfather; but she has gone this way with Farley under the Farley tree.
aprilp_katje,
Plus if Iris is convinced that Jim has one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel, and therefore will be reacquainted with Marian soon, in the great beyond, could be she's conditioning him for the reunion. ::shudder::
That is an eerie thought. Iris has played an odd role with Jim. Initially, I liked her as a dance partner and an equal to the often-acerbic Jim; but shortly after they got married she turned into a health care worker, making sure Jim had a very restricted diet and taking care of Jim whenever he pushed himself too far with the New Bentwood Rockers. My step-father-in-law had a band he played in for a number of years, and the wives of the band members were also band groupies. Whenever my step-father-in-law played, my mother-in-law would go to see him and gossip with her fellow band wives/groupies and would have a good time. The moment when Jim signed the lady’s butt with his autograph and had to come home to face the music with Iris, I realized Iris had really dropped out of the fun part of his life, and was playing this other role of caretaker. That’s where she has been ever since. I preferred the fun Iris, the one who, with Jim, tried to sneak Dixie into their “no dogs allowed” apartment.
Anon NYC,
My friend Howard has helped me understand what’s really going on. Mother Iris Teresa is no longer willing to care for her second husband and will be moving Grandpa Jim - ASAP - to a nursing facility.
“Mother Iris Teresa”? Anon NYC, are you snarking? I would hate to think I had corrupted an innocent. If not, you have been getting good with predictions. I can easily see Iris saying, “My darling Jim and love of my life, I’m doing this for your own good!” The only thing with which I have an issue is “ASAP”. Now that Lynn Johnston has called for an end to the new stories for the modern characters in September, I expect that Grandpa Jim’s move will last almost that long.
Anon NYC: I am pretty sure that if Jim goes to Sunset Manor, Iris is going with him. The only reason Lynn introduced the Iris character into the strip was to have a free and convenient nurse for Jim so Elly would unencumbered in her retirement. She will continue to be St. Iris, devoted entirely to Jim.
Actually, what pisses me off most about this is that Iris is wasting her whole life caring for a man who does not appreciate her, whose family does not appreciate her. I get that Iris claims this gives her pleasure. But it is sad that Jim's family doesn't ever give her time off (by coming and doing respite care) to go see her own children and grandchildren, or travel, or whatever. Elly could easily spend 1-2 weeks with Jim while Iris went to see her own kids. But no, Iris hasn't traveled to see her own children since before the stroke. It's as if we are supposed to believe there is nothing more enjoyable in life than being a slave to a Patterson (or a Richards). Well, I call shenanigans.
Well, it seems to me that if Jim goes, it'll be the last we see of Iris as well. She is, as qnjones said, there for the sole reason of Taking Care Of Chinnuts and once that purpose is done, she'll join Lawrance and the people of Mtigwaki in the Magic Land of Discarded Characters.
qnjones
But no, Iris hasn't traveled to see her own children since before the stroke.
To confirm this statement, I went back to the monthly letters to see if that was truly the case; because I thought Iris took a trip somewhere in there. Your statement is correct. There was no monthly letter that said, “I went to visit my daughter or son, etc.”; just a lot of letters talking about how she would like to visit. One of the things I miss about the monthly letters was that there was this subplot of Iris’ daughter realizing that things were seriously amiss with Iris and Jim and she wrote about her attempt to help. For example:
Grandpa's Letter, May 2007
My daughter is still contemplating moving to Milborough so she can be closer to us. I'd like that, especially since my other children are so much farther away. She's talked about finding a country house with a "granny cottage" attached where Jim and I could stay. We like our independence here in our apartment, but I do have to say that it would be nice to be so close to family. Especially since my son-in-law is a doctor!
I look at this now, and realize what a serious statement this is. Iris’ daughter in Barrie doesn’t say, “I would like to move you and Jim to Barrie to live with us.” It says she is planning to uproot herself to go to Milborough so she can get a house where Jim and Iris are there with them, and by implication still keep those persons obsessed with living in Milborough happy.
I think sometimes those monthly letter writers had a better understanding of the situation than Lynn Johnston does.
dreadedcandiru2,
Well, it seems to me that if Jim goes, it'll be the last we see of Iris as well.
I don’t know if we’ll go far enough in time to see that happen; but you are probably right. Look how Uncle Phil, a mainstay of the early strip, nearly completely disappeared after he moved. Then there was the more subtle disappearance of Will and Carrie Patterson from April’s Winnipeg adventures. I didn’t know what happened until the on-line backstory of Carrie Patterson was updated in the Who’s Who to find they had moved into an Assisted Living Centre.
Howard, I’m not snarking, God forbid… I’m just being sarcastic…
Anon NYC
qnjones
If Iris is planning to join Jim at Sunset Manor then I must apologize for my less-than-charitable comments!
I don’t sense that Iris is taking care of a man who does not appreciate her. I do agree that the Pattersons are taking advantage of Iris’s good nature and not doing their share. I just wish that she would open her mouth and say something.
I’d love to see Iris vacationing with her own children while Elly and John take care of Jim. If one of Lynn’s goals is to educate--then this would be a worthwhile lesson. I’d call it “The Fifth Commandment.”
Anon NYC
Anon NYC:
I think Jim shows Iris the proper respect and appreciation sometimes. But sometimes he does things I think are very disrespectful, especially when you consider that this woman has given up her whole life to caring for him. Pre-stroke, instead of enjoying a day in the park with his wife, we saw him ignoring the wife and ogling multiple young women right in front of her. Since the stroke, we have seen him (mentally) criticize Iris for talking too much. Those are the things I am thinking of when I call Jim unappreciative. He really should think more about how his cup is half full with respect to how lucky he is to have a self-sacrificing wife like Iris.
Howard:
I missed that letter talking about Iris's daughter's idea of moving to Milborough because I kind of stopped reading the old people letters toward the end. I think you're right--someone on her staff realized that Lynn's blithe confidence that Iris could act on her own to take care of Jim was radically unrealistic.
When I was fourteen I started to care for my ailing grandmother. I’d come home from school, eat supper with my family and then walk the five blocks to my grandmother’s house, where I would do my homework and sleep. It was a great arrangement for all of us. I was at ease with my grandmother’s dementia and her ill-health, and I was rewarded with improved grades. Sometimes my grandmother would criticize me for silly things. One morning, for example, I left for school without turning off the radio in my room. That evening my grandmother complained that I wasted electricity. But I knew how to handle her; whenever she would get upset with me I’d start packing my suitcase and threaten to go back home, and she’d drop the issue!
Jim’s lack of appreciation is Iris’s doing. Even my passive mother didn’t allow my domineering father to treat her that way. Men are like puppies--they need to be trained!
Anon NYC
Anon NYC,
Howard, I’m not snarking, God forbid… I’m just being sarcastic…
That’s a relief. I was getting worried for a moment.
I’d love to see Iris vacationing with her own children while Elly and John take care of Jim. If one of Lynn’s goals is to educate--then this would be a worthwhile lesson. I’d call it “The Fifth Commandment.”
As a point of explanation, I expect you mean the Protestant Fifth Commandment “Honour your father and your mother.” and not the Lutheran and Catholic Fifth Commandment “You shall not kill.” from the Mosaic Decalogue.
Jim’s lack of appreciation is Iris’s doing. Even my passive mother didn’t allow my domineering father to treat her that way. Men are like puppies--they need to be trained!
I wonder if this explains why my wife sometimes threatens me with a rolled up newspaper.
qnjones,
Pre-stroke, instead of enjoying a day in the park with his wife, we saw him ignoring the wife and ogling multiple young women right in front of her. Since the stroke, we have seen him (mentally) criticize Iris for talking too much.
Even post-stroke, Jim ogles other women, as in this strip. I especially love this strip in comparison to the appearance of Diane and Sue, the two ladies photographed doing this real-life activity for Lynn’s reference materials. Lynn chose not to draw the real people for her strip, but instead made them much younger specifically so Grandpa Jim could ogle them. Apparently Lynn is unaware that an 86-year-old man can ogle ladies who are close to Lynn’s age.
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