Fun Food Facts & GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may

On Sunday we went to visit my Gram. She had been transferred from the hospital to a nursing home. She had wandered upstairs this past Monday at my Aunt's house & was not making sense. My Aunt took her to the emergency room right off where they ran a boat load of tests. They assume it was a stroke.

I was nervous as hell to go visit.

The disease in her brain is slowly making her forget. It's also pissing her right the hell off. From as long as I can remember, she was a small woman with a big presence. She taught me how to iron, vacuum, fold sheets, and get mad. All very useful things. On the weekends when I was little she'd drive over with coffee cake, her little Pekingese dog, and lots of energy and we'd clean. Her house was always spotless, the sidewalk shoveled, the flower beds tidy.

Being quite an independent sort, she recently tried to escape from my Aunt's house a couple of times.

Fell off a chair trying to change a calender at midnight.

Needless to say, it was time for the professionals to take over. She is still quite capable of getting around but the chair alarms, door alarms, and cameras make escaping into the winter & the snow much more difficult. Besides since they frown on losing people at Nursing Homes, so we can hope that everyone will try their best to keep her contained.

Gram was in good spirts when I found her in the common room. She said Mr. Parker had been to see her earlier today and he was her favorite neighbor. I was pretty darn sure Mr. Parker had passed away years ago but she was happy so I told her how cool that was. (I also wondered exactly WHAT she and Mr. Parker had been up to since she was slightly sparkling when she told me!) Dad told me later she had been given happy pills, but who cares. Happy is Happy. Sparkly is Sparkly.

Later we went down to the dining room where they were reading fun food facts and serving tea. Time for us to leave. The visit was for us, not her. I am sure shortly after we left, we faded from her brain. The older memories seem to be stuck there but the new ones are flying away as soon as they are made.

I also finally understand the Christmas present she sent us.

It's a photo of her and Grandpa in his plane. They divoced when my Dad was in college so it seemed really awkward at the time. Now it just makes me happy.

It also reminds me that time here is short, no matter how long those years seem away. A little perspective is always a good thing. Gather Ye Rosebuds....