This Might Actually Go OK

For the first time since we started looking at places to move my mother, I am feeling optimistic and thinking it just may go all right.

In the morning, Walt and I went over to Covell Gardens to bring the TV set so it could be set up for her.  Turns out nobody told us that it didn't come with hardware for all mounting, so now we have to go out tomorrow and find a wall mount and then the staff at Covell will install it so it will be ready to go when she gets there.

We also stopped to visit my friend Peg Kerr, who was part of a writing group I belonged to several years ago.  I wanted to see a furnished apartment to get an idea.  Peg's apartment is smaller than my mother's but looks quite comfortable and not at all crowded.  We also discovered that from the hall across from her door you can see my mother's patio.

Jeri and my mother arrived shortly before noon and we drove to meet Jeri's godmother Jeri and her husband Phil (they have been married 3 years now and we still have not managed to get a Jeri & Phil and Jeri & Phil picture!).  

We had a nice lunch (thanks, Phil!) and then took them with us to show them Covell Gardens.  I couldn't get the Jeri & Phil and Jeri & Phil picture, but I did get a Jeri-Phil-Jeri picture!

...and, of course, a Jeri-Jeri picture.

To my delight, my mother actually seemed to be interested in her new apartment, for the first time.  She wanted a broom so she could sweep her porch.   She was tickled when we put her ceramic dog, which has guarded her porch in Terra Linda for about 20 years, outside her living room door.

Jeri and Walt worked at taping where her furniture would go, so she could get an idea of how things might come together.

She began supervising and talking about what she wanted to put where.

When we left the apartment to show Jeri the rest of the complex, my mother made sure that the curtains were closed so people couldn't look in and see her stuff.  Another good sign.

We walked through the building and came across a few clumps of people.  My mother told them she was moving in and had conversations with them.   She seemed interested when I pointed out that on Sunday they are having something called "meditation for pain," which might be a way to help her with her back pain. I was feeling so good about it all by the time we left.

Jeri went off to visit a friend in Davis and we brought my mother home with us.  Another amazing sign...Polly actually made friends with her, in her weird approach-avoidance way.

Jeri came home and we all sat down to dinner, served on the new blue glass plates that had been my godmother's, which I brought home from my mother's house on Sunday.

We talked about moving plans and things we can do after she gets here.  It was such a wonderful evening and my spirits lifted higher than they have been for several months.  And everyone is helping.  My mother's good friend Paula helped pack.  Her step-daughter, Ellen, spent several days with her packing.  Ed has been wonderful about so many things, Tom & Laurel are coming on Saturday--whether to Terra Linda or Davis will be determined by when the movers show up and where between Santa Barbara and here they are at the time. Ned & Marta will be in Terra Linda to help organize for the movers on Saturday and Ned is already planning to have lunch with her at the new place a couple of times a month so she realizes that this was really a very good move.

I am ending the evening tonight with a full heart and high hopes and feeling like maybe an ant can move a rubber tree plant after all.