In my fav motel room in Marion Ohio. Home of Warren G Harding. You can tour his home place...Whoo Hoo...This is a little more than half way home for me, was going to try and get a little further south but heavy rain, fog, construction, 8 hours driving, I’m done in.
No immediate crisis but haven’t seen folks since I got them in AL mid December. Bazillion things to do down there....Check on folks, meet with realtor, go file stuff at courthouse, get new title for car....can’t find it anywhere.....Try and finish clearing out old paperwork, pictures, any valuables from house....And on and on.....
Neighbor lady visited mom and dad yesterday. Her report....Mom is still mad at me....Dad has lost his wallet and watch....He can’t even see his watch....I had cleaned out his wallet except for worthless cards and grandkid pics......Mom says she owes some gal money for buying her some clothes as I dumped her in there with nothing..omg.....And mom told her there was hundreds of dollars in their car....
And so it goes. God only knows what I’ll find when I get there. Staff tells me they’re doing pretty good. Dad hasn’t tried to break out and find his car for several days now, so that’s good.
Sometimes capri pants are best with short folks. Im 5'3" if I stand up really straight. I'll need capris and not petites in a couple of years!
And Becky, I don’t want to cast my fellow hillbillies in a bad light but ain’t much martini drinking going on down here......The state revenue comes from the George Dickel/ Jack Daniels guys....And other crap I don’t even want to get into.
It's all good. You have a good local plumber, yes?
Breathe. You've sure as heck got this!
Total white knuckle crap....
Got to the old home place about noon, turned water on, hot water heater, and turned up heat. All systems (such as they are) go....then went to AL to see folks.
They were in their room, mom very lethargic and not making much sense. Dad making no sense at all but not agitated. Mom gave me the total cold shoulder at first but at least she wasn’t weepy and talking about me dumping her in prison/when can I go home and so forth. She slowly started coming round but it’s clear her dementia is increasing rapidly.
A neighbor lady had visited them Friday. She had called and told me mom said she had no clothes, Dad had lost his watch, wallet, and glasses. So the first hour or so I’m trying to determine what’s fact and what is delusional. At the house I found 4 pairs of dads old glasses and a working watch and had brought thevwatch and a pair of glasses with me. Sure enough, no glasses, watch or wallet. He put the glasses and the watch on and was quite happy.
A search of drawers and closet....Hardly any of mom’s clothes left!? Found caregiver...Moms stuff is in the laundry and will be back tonight. Ok.....
Remaining mystery: who brought the new Capri pants (Really?) two pair, and 6 pack of new undies? No staff had any idea, nor did mom and Dad. Hmmmmmmm....
Mom continued to perk up, telling me stories about life in the joint, p theraphy, it’s really hard, their dinner table mate E, she’s very hard of hearing, had four sons etc. ok...Im liking this version of mom.
At dinner mom and E carried on like they were at Girl Scout camp. Moms a little better off mentally than E and I could tell she liked helping E out by loudly explaining to her what was going on, the menu and so on. E seemed delighted. She is a sweetie. 90 years old and deaf as a stone, but she and mom seem to be big buddies.
Then mom tells me how she liked these college boys who come by and play guitars and sing. She really enjoyed it.
My god....I so wish I could have gotten her in here 5 years ago.
Dad is very confused. Couldn’t figure out where I was staying. BUT I THOUGHT YOU LIVED IN MICHIGAN? Yes Dad, but I’m staying at your house. WHAT HOUSE? The one 5 miles from here. OH I TORE THAT OLD HOUSE DOWN YEARS AGO......So I left it there.
OMG it is so friggin hot in that place. I can do an hour and I have to go outside for some air. It’s beyond me how people do 12 hour shifts in these places.....
So I’m pleased that the folks seem to be getting with the program. Of course that could change tomorrow but I think we’ll get there. Now it’s going to be a crazy week of house-bank-realtor-car-DMV-
and dealing with a dying sump pump. If that baby goes....I don’t even want to think about it.
Thank all you guys for the nice words.
Bad news....My realtor tells me the market is bad there now. Kinda over saturated suburbia. Probably gonna take a huge hit financially. Oh well......Had they moved and sold 5 years ago we’d have caught the tale end of the boom in that area. But , OH NO...WE’RE JUST FINE HERE....YOUR DAD CAN BRING MY PILLS TO MY ROOM....
So here we are. Could be much worse. They saved a good bit of money but now we’re playing the WILL I OUTLIVE MY MONEY GAME......