Friday, November 14, 2014

Wonderful, wonderful evening :-)

We were supposed to watch a British mystery while drinking tea last night, but when we asked Mommy if she wanted to go in the living room and watch with us, she said: "Not right now.  Maybe later."

So, instead of watching TV, we stayed in the kitchen.  Amanda, David, and I played sporcle quizzes on Amanda's phone and laughed and talked while Mom looked at her papers and read the book "A Mother is Love" - which she's reading again this morning.

It was wonderful.  Even though Mommy (and me too, for that matter), didn't really know the name of films that start with "I" that won academy awards or the how ever many world capitals that start with "C" we still had a lot of fun and there were a lot of smiles and twinkling eyes.

At about 9:30, we were ready to wind down the quiz time, and so we said it was time for bed and Amanda started to wheel Mom back to her room.  Mom did not want to go.  She was so upset that she had a hard time articulating words.  She hung on the table so Amanda had to pry her fingers loose, and then she grabbed the counter as she was passing by it.

Amanda and I felt like crying.  When we got to the room, Mom was really upset.  She didn't want us to help her stand up by the walker.  She wanted to do it herself, but she didn't seem to know how.  She kept pushing the walker forward a little bit and then pulling it back and changing where her hands were positioned.  We let her do this for several minutes and just practiced our patience.  Amanda is much more patient than I am.  She is a good role model for me.

Then we said, "Let us help you stand up and then it will work," and she let us.  She walked about five steps.  Amanda, who could see her face, said she was determined.  Then we helped her pivot to sit on the bed, and she was exhausted from the effort so we said, "Let's just take a break, and rest here a minute before we try to lie down."  Then Amanda sat on her left side, and I sat on her right, and we just held her there - and she held us.  We all had arms around each other and held hands - and for as long as I live - the memory of Amanda and me sitting there with Mommy and all of us loving and comforting each other will be precious.  We sat there for a long time.  There was no clock, but I would guess that it was five or ten minutes at least.  Nobody said anything.  It was just comfort.

Then, we said, "Are you ready to lay down now?" and Mommy said she was.  We helped her get positioned in the bed, and then after we kissed her goodnight, I told her that I'd be back in a few minutes to read to her.

Amanda and I went to the kitchen to talk for a while.  Then, I went back in - I didn't know if she'd be awake or not, but she was awake, and I got "Little House in the Big Woods," and read to her a chapter.  Amanda came in and she read the next chapter.  She sat on a chair by Mommy's bed and read to her.  I sat on the floor at Amanda's feet and held Mom's hand.  At the end of the chapter, Amanda stopped, and I saw that Mom had fallen asleep.

Of course she woke when I let go of her hand, So, I read to her from "A Mother is Love" until she fell asleep again, and this time she didn't wake when I let go of her hand.

It was a beautiful tuck in time.  I know it won't always go so good, but that time was wonderful, and I wanted all of you to be a part of it by sharing it.

I'll end with a funny thing that happened this morning.

I let her sleep in until it was time for her Xarelto this morning. So, at 9AM, I took her mashed banana (a few spoons of it mixed with her crushed vitamin) and a scrambled egg and some cranberry juice.  First, she had the vitamin mash.  Then, she had the banana.  Then, she had the Xarelto with some cranberry juice.  Then, I started to give her the, now cold, scrambled eggs.  She said, "I don't know what this stuff is."  I said, "Well, it's scrambled eggs, but maybe they got a little tough and cold while they were sitting there."  I gave her another bite, and she made a face.  So, I said, "Should I give these ones to the dog and fix you some fresh ones?"  And she said, "Maybe that would be a good idea."

Scooby liked them, and Mom liked the next one - I put in extra butter in the new batch for her to try to make up for the bad batch.

Mom is dozing now - with "A Mother is Love" still held in her hand.  I'm going to leave this "radio" in her room playing a youtube hymn playlist and go and get some work done.

3 comments:

  1. You should try streaming WPEL and Request Time at 10AM on weekdays. She used to like to take a break at that time and listened to it almost every day. We could even put in requests for her from time to time.

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  2. :-) Got it ready for tomorrow:

    http://tunein.com/radio/Request-Time-p36978/

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