After a day of enjoying a Genealogy conference at our local library, I returned to check on Mom. I hoped that she had made her way to lunch or perhaps gotten out of her room to enjoy the Banana Split Social in the Ice Cream parlor. But no, no such luck. “I’ve been so lonely,” […]
I see a new face or two in the dining room almost every week, some happy, some sad. They hesitate at the entrance, unsure of where to sit. It is true that there is no assigned seating, but Heaven forfend, that someone should sit in a seat occupied by one of the long-timers. It is […]
“You really should have someone else doing all the daily care,” one of my mother’s table mates suggested yesterday. “Nursing homes have people who can care for your mother all the time. You shouldn’t have to come for every meal.” She is right, of course. A nursing home does provide daily care and often very […]
There are a lot of us visiting our relatives @CarriageInn. It is always a surprise to me to see who is here. We are a quiet sub-group of our society—those with elderly parents who can’t keep our loved ones at home. All of us coming or going through the halls, greeting each other with wintry […]
“When are you getting rid of the dogs?” Mom asked the other day. I looked at her askance. “In about ten years,” I said. “They are taking up too much of your time,” she said. I admit, they do. I have four dogs rescued from the side of the road or from friends or neighbors […]
Who knew there was a difference between Medicare A and B? Yesterday I took Mom to hear the wonderful Dan Phillips do a presentation on his @PhoenixCommotion. He builds fantastic houses here in Huntsville out of left-overs and remainders and trash. I thought she would enjoy it. I sat her right up front. She never […]
One thing for sure, our elderly parents don’t forget distant memories. They may not know what they ate this morning, but they can remember vivid details about some occurrence long ago. And although she wasn’t part of the memory, Mom wants something done about it. I spoke to the residents @CarriageInn for my monthly presentation […]
Mom never encouraged cuddling. Daddy did, but Mom, very rarely. So, other than a hug or a peck on the cheek, touching her is hard for me, especially for something as intimate as bathing. As I arrived at her Resident Facility yesterday morning, I passed one of the Caregivers who had the day off. She […]
It’s all about balance. Recently, as Robots and competitions to produce a good one become more popular, I’ve seen clips of two-legged robots struggling to walk. Inevitably, they fall over in spectacular falls. They try to lift a foot to step up onto a platform. Slowly, they begin to tilt backward, their weight shifting, and […]
For almost all of her 98 years, my mother has kept a journal. Yesterday I saw her first attempt since she has been at the Residential Facility. It was an almost illegible scrawl in red ink. A confused rambling asking for her distant husband, Al. A garbled sentence of certainty that she was there to […]