Back to Normal

Jeri and Phil have packed up and headed off to our Tahoe condo for the week (this  was Walt's mother's condo, which we now jointly own with his sister).  I was surprised at how tired I was all day.  It wasn't that the weekend was all that busy, but busier than I've been in awhile and I guess that past a certain age you notice.

Jeri had the full Grandma experience while she was here.  She saw her three times, and each time was completely different from the previous time.

The first time was the day after they arrived when the four of us (Jeri, Phil, Walt and me) went to Atria and brought a new arrangement of artificial flowers.

It was a normal visit.  The same repeating of things a lot, but hugging and sharing photos and my mother, who had been rather non-committal about the prospect of a visit with Jeri prior to their arrival, seemed to genuinely enjoy being with her again.

The next day was the day of the Nifty Fifty party.  While we were packing up and getting ready to Jeri and Phil went to see my mother again.  It was awful.  They tried calling her first but she didn't answer (I discovered yesterday she had unplugged her phone).  So they knocked on the door and she answered but it was one of her "out of it days" and she passed out on them three times.  Jeri called me and I told her to tell the front desk.  I talked with someone at the front desk and they are trying to decide whether to send her to the ER or not.

What to do? What to do?  Should I go to the party, or stay home on the chance my mother might be going to the ER? Finally, after discussion with Atria, I decided that we would go in two cars, Atria had my cell phone number and Jeri's and if they decided my other should go to the ER, they would call and I could meet them there in about 45 minutes.  Obviously, I ended up enjoying the party and did not get a call from Atria.

They put her on an "every 2 hour" watch schedule, where someone would check on her every two hours.  I'm not sure if she's still on that or not, but it was a tremendous relief to know that she would be checked on that often.

Then, the night before they left, Jeri and Phil went to Atria to have dinner with her.  At some point Jeri called to say that they had not had dinner with her and were going to get food for themselves and did we need anything?

I had visions of her refusing to eat, as she often does, stating that she doesn't feel well.  But that was not the case at all.  When they got to Atria, they saw her in the dining room eating, so they waited until she left and then went with her to the apartment.  Jeri reported that they had a wonderful time, singing and telling jokes! (I want Jeri to move back to Davis again!!)  So they left with a good feeling.

Yesterday, I went to visit and it really was back to normal.  The first thing she told me was that she's getting old, then she said she didn't feel well.  I told her what we'd been doing the past 3 days and when I finished she asked "so what have you been doing I should know about?"  She had no memory of seeing Jeri.  I realize that with her you have t enjoy literally the MINUTE because it will be gone the next minute...but the minute you are enjoying is real and she is enjoying herself in that minute.

I was there for an hour during which time she asked at least a dozen time what I was doing tonight (she ony asked twice if we were going dancing) and what I had been doing. She complained about being old, she complained about the "mess" on her patio (they are doing remodeling), she loved the artificial flowers, and she looked off into the distance and sighed a lot.  That was how our hour went.  She would pick up a little booklet of pix of Bri when she was a baby, look through it, then toss it aside in disgust.  She did that over and over again.  

And so it begins again   I was emotionally exhausted when I came home and took a nap.

Today I'll be back to deliver meds and pick up laundry, but I am having lunch with friends first, so won't try to eat with her too.

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Tonight the Music Circus season comes to an end with a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Music Circus is one of only four theaters in the company that were granted permission to perform the show, and we've been warned that this is not the Disney version, but close to the original book, so not really recommended for small children.

The summer theater season is coming to an end, which means that the fall theater season will be starting soon!  Since I started reviewing for the Sacramento period too it seems that theater is my life.  It's fun, but sometimes overwhelming when there are three openings a weekend back to back with three more openings the following weekend.  The nice thing is that the salary for the Sacramento writers has almost doubled in the past month and that's a very nice thing!