Duck posing for his 82nd birthday photograph. January 2008.
We met him in the hall just as he reached the nursing station near his room.
“Oh, are you going to drive over to my place?” He asked.
"This is your place. Your name is on the door, and your place is here."
He had the most shocked look on his face.
G showed him his name on the door, and he replied, “Well, I wondered about that.”
“This is home, Duck.”
While G and Duck chatter, I couldn’t seem to settle. The black sweat pants he had on yesterday were twice as dirty today.
“G, aren’t his pants even dirtier?”
I rotated around and began poking into his closet, pulling clothes out and off hangers to see how dirty they were, handing them to G to see. Almost all his favorites were dirty. Hangers were hidden here and under there. I left Duck with only a couple of pair of dress pants and lots of shirts then stalked off down the hall in search of a dirty clothes hamper. A kind lady showed me….they’d been hidden in the shower.
When I got back, G, Duck, and Friedrich were laughing, and it was a good time to leave…leave ‘em smiling indeed.
“When we go tonight, you sneak into his room and go through his closet,” G said as we drove up the hill.
“I’ll bring a flash light,” I replied.
Duck: Continued slide downward. One old friend called. With prompting, he remembered who called. I had suggested his friends write for then he can read and reread the cards and each time it is fresh. He doesn't remember phone conversations now.
Me: Stretching….moving as many hours as I can move. Only collapsed into tiredness after gutting and cleaning the top kitchen cabinets around two. Kept moving all day Saturday too. Not bad. Getting rid of one set of Russel Wright…wonder if Eldest wants them. Nice simple 1939 set. Dark green tho.
G: Really good. Still good tho disappointed that the Chargers lost.
We Costcoed to get Eldest new Office 2007. The “Office 2003” we gave her wouldn’t register any more. It had been registered 3 times already. Grocery shopped. While I cleaned and gutted kitchen cupboards after buying big new dish, he watched the game and later computered.
Weather: San Diego: 56 for the high. 43 for the low. Chance of showers 30%. Cloud layer one mile thick.
WW: Did you know that today is the Monday most people give up their resolutions and diets?
Please do not throw out the Russel Wright. I collect dishes, and my heart stopped when I read you post. That stuff can be worth a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteMJ
A friend of mine is looking after her husband at home. He is suffering from paranoia, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer. He has developed this terrible fear of water and bathing in any form. It makes her life very difficult. She has tried to take him to a senior citizen home twice a month and have the qualified personnel bath him. She has tried hiring a private nurse to do it. All has failed. She is now looking for a male nurse. IT is a problem, isn't it, when the mind goes?
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