Friday, April 30, 2010

Home

This week we brought Whiskers to see Mom again. Don't worry he was in his cat carrier before we started driving but I can't get over how comfy he is on these visits!

He wasn't in a cuddly mood but he did give Mom some love and she shared some chicken with him.

Whiskers situated himself front and center and held court for all the folks who went by. Later the kids took him on a tour to meet and greet. I'm wondering if he might become a therapy cat someday.

We often draw pictures with Mom but this time she couldn't think of anything to draw so my niece made up a colouring sheet for her instead. Next time we'll bring a colouring book (one of the things she loved to do with us as kids was colour) and for sure we'll bring a yellow marker because the one we had didn't work and that was a problem.

Mom left for a few minutes to use the washroom and when she came back (we had to remind her we were there as she would have forgotten) I noticed that her stomach was extremely distended and so I was worried that her hernia had somehow become worse.

I worried until Mom pulled this book our from under her shirt and we had a great laugh about it!

I wish I could leave it there. We had a nice visit but only when we could distract Mom from her worries that she really needed to get home to milk her cow. More and more Mom feels she needs to leave this place and go "home." Sadly even if we took her to another place I don't think it would ever really be home. She worries that she is going to miss her ride and be left behind. She told me that she stole the book from "some woman's room." That's sad to me because we've been lucky up till now that she usually felt that her room was her home. Imagine worrying that you are sleeping in someone else's bed and what they are going to say to you when they find you there.

This week there were more times when I realized that I completely forgot some ordinary things, something I never would have done in the past. It's comforting when people my age tell me that they too forget little things a lot, and I've always said that as long as you can remember that you forget you are okay. But it still makes me think and worry and admire my mother for how well she handles her life. And watching her and the other people around her also makes me sure that I don't want to live that kind of life.

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