In the Frame

As I mentioned the other day, we're trying out a digital photo frame for Mom. The jury is still out on it's success as I found it neatly put away in her dresser. It's hard to know if was put away because it was casting shadows at night, or if it was turned off and blank, and therefore a pictureless frame taking up space. I saw some other scary things in her top dresser drawer, like Cheesies of an unknown vintage probably placed there "For Dad because he's not home yet and missed supper."

I certainly do not blame housekeeping for the things I saw in Mom's dresser. Mom can be very short with the staff sometimes if she feels they are invading her space so it's up to family to sort things like this out because we can get away with it. And really a small wardrobe, a dresser and a bed are the only personal space she has. If it were not for potential vermin, I'd say let her keep all the Cheeto's she wants.

Getting Mom dressed everyday is probably an uphill battle. She's gained weight over the past few years and so no longer fits into any of the clothes that she recognizes as her own. We try to buy clothes for her that she would like, but as she previously made almost all of her clothes, we just can't find things that she wants to wear. They are not familiar and therefore do not belong to her. She may not know what happened five minutes ago but she knows that she hates that colour and would never have bought material like that.

Anyway, as my niece and nephew and I visited with Mom last night, we showed her a slide show of family pictures in the digital picture frame. I made a conscious effort not to quiz Mom about who was who - it wasn't a test. But she herself often spoke out the name of the person in the picture and quizzed my niece. So the mystery continues. Mom enjoys the picture frame while we are with her. She does not seem to question the technology. If we can figure out a way to turn the frame off at night so it doesn't cast shadows maybe it will be a success.

Oh, and remember several posts ago I mentioned that I was going to ask Mom who the woman in the death bed scene postcard was? Last night I had the picture with me and totally forgot to ask her. But I'm sure that doesn't mean anything.