Tuesday, February 10, 2015

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....


7 comments:

  1. Dammit, that almost made me cry. That photograph is AWESOME. So young & Vibrant & happy....I've just been visiting Val Thorpe's with a sorta similar post.....sorta. Anyways, I'm glad it wasn't so bad with your Gram. Getting old ain't fun. That's for certain. But we are always the peeps we were as much as the peeps we are. Nice to 'know' your Gram as she was as much as she is, I say:):) And GO HAPPY PILLS!!!!

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  2. Love the photos. Glad you got to see your Gram, and she was so happy.

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  3. Oh dear.. Your dear Gran.. I do hope her days in the nursing home will be happy and you get to spend many wonderful times with her.. That photo is so precious..They look so happy.. a precious happy moment.. may we all have lots of them.. precious happy moments..

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  4. WOW! I can really see the family resemblance in you and your grandfather. That smile of his is definitely a family trait. A very beautiful and poignant phrase for this post. Makes me sad to read but then makes those memories of the past even so much more special. What a great picture of the two of them.

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  5. It's a wonderful photo. I love what Lizzy says about being who we were as well as who we are. I've never heard that before and I'm tucking it away to keep

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  6. Thank you so much for this sensitive, caring and yet humorous approach to what is always difficult as a subject -- and to go through. Good luck with spunky "Gram"!

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  7. Such a sweet and bittersweet post! My Grandma lived with us for a time before we made the decision to switch to professional care (for the same reason). At the time, her forgetfulness made me sad, but looking back, I think I learned more about her as a person during those years. She wasn't a person to tell stories about herself, but we picked up a lot of details about her past through her confusing past with present.

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