I came in to find her gazing and observing others over her coffee. She was happy to see me (and why not?!). So, we began with the 'putting on of the stockings' routine. Now, I'm not sure I've described this before. Mom sits in her recliner, then waits for me to remove her shoes and socks. Next, I am to put on her stockings, one at a time (if you can do two, you aren't normal). Her feet tend to be quite relaxed, which makes this task difficult - there is no help from her at all, and all the while she's dictating to you how to do it properly (and this doesn't always make any sense). Next step is to get her to elevate her feet on the footrest of the recliner. Phew! Now, once that's done, and you've put the stockings on, she wants me to fix her pant legs, put on her shoes and socks, tie them, and adjust.
Well, this morning I went to a point in all this, then finally exclaimed, "My dearest Victoria Regina. Surely there must be a small simple part of you that would enjoy taking care of those things yourself." She laughed and replied, "Why should I when I have you doing it all?!" Sigh of Exasperation!
This morning we also went on a little walking trip to Laurelhurst Park, in Southeast Portland, near one of our old homes from the 1960's. Originally we were going to go to Mount Tabor, but when I parked and Mom realized we'd need to walk up a little hill she demanded we go somewhere else. "I just ate and going up hills makes me terribly queasy. I'm already nauseous enough. Find another place." So, we ventured to Laurelhurst.
The park was marvelous. It was cool. On the way there, Mom chatted about how she'd given some pants of hers to Connie and Jean (The RLC) to fix so that they could be given to my brothers and myself for Christmas as gifts. Knowing this was very much a possibility, I was hoping either Connie or Jean would have appeased her and just put them to the side (Remind me to speak of the Executive Bibs for Xmas).
We walked, looked at the trees - Mom seemed rather upset that so many trees in Portland were dead and no one was removing them! I tried explaining it was Autumn, and nearly Winter, and she understood that, but then she basically stated that they were dead and needed removing before they killed people. Sigh.
We looked at the birds. There was a seagull swimming about, but Mom stated it was a swan, not a seagull, and she explained the bands of grey on the wings as a tell-sign. This I knew not. This I still know not.
Eventually we made it back to the car. She did need to go uphill, which took 4 stops to go 50 feet, but it was worth it just to give her the opportunity to exercise.
Next, we drove by our old Laurelhurst house, but she couldn't recall which it was, but I did. So, we went off to the house where she was born. We couldn't locate that, either. We then went to another house I remembered, near 60th and Fremont. She still drew a blank.
Next we drove down to Jean's house for lunch.
Mom told me about her week, as we drove. She did play Bingo, and she won (of course)!
She'd had her toenails done - just clipped, though. She stated she didn't want her hair done, yet. She wanted to wait until next month when she was back home in Port Angeles. Uh oh.
At Jean's, Mom was quite busy. She took over the small reading nook, and kept Jean engaged while I made lunch. Finally, we were able to eat. Mom ate healthily. She ate the entire salad of kale, spinach, scallions, tangerines, mushrooms, tomatoes, orange peppers, olive oil, and balsamic. She ate the pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza. She loved the pecan - chocolate cream pie, as well.
A little later, Terry (Jean's son), and his daughter, Jaida, appeared. Terry wanted to talk about the State Playoff Football game the day before, as my students played against his alma mater. It was a good chat. Mom had a very good time, as well. She was quite engaged.
We finally left, with Mom feeling tired but happy.
She did well this week, except that she's somehow managing to refuse to do certain things which are calls for concern. These are things I'm going to investigate this week.
So, Stay Tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment