A Finish and a Visit

I finished the runner I for my mom.

I gave it to her last week when Son and I visited my parents. She placed it on the width of the table instead of lengthwise, folding the ends in so only three stars show, but it was just the right size! She did this because otherwise it would have been in Dad 's 'work area'.

Dad uses the end of the table closest to the window. He has dementia. He is forgetting names and places and events. He is no longer able to drive. When he did drive, after he retired, he would drive into town to the local Casey's, get one squirt of 4 different flavors of coffee (in one cup) and a cookie, drive to the lake and enjoy his coffee and cookie while he watched water flow over the dam. Then he would drive home taking little-traveled country roads and pick up any cans he found along the way. Once home he would smash the cans with a sledge hammer and put them in a large plastic barrel. When a couple of barrels were filled he and Mom would haul them to the recycling center. He replaced the tires on his little Smart car with the money one time. Now that he can't drive he is keeping busy by matching up random nuts and bolts from his shop and collecting rocks. 

He told me that two of the women that live in the house (only one woman - it's Mom) don't like the rocks in the house. He lines them up on the window ledge, on trays, any flat surface that Mom let's him use. 

He also lines them up on the bricks and fence outside the window. 

They are very neatly organized.

He also carefully selected a collection for me to bring home.

My parents have always had a flag pole. A very tall flag pole. It gets very windy where they live and the flag gets tattered quickly. Mom wondered if a shorter flag pole would help with that problem.

So Son made them a new pole and we got the flag up while we were there. 

I think they like it!

Mom is realizing that at some point in the future she will not be able to provide all the care my dad will likely need as his dementia progresses. She is making plans. She is trying to clear their house of as much as she can now. So I had fun going through some boxes that were brought down from the attic. 

Lots of pictures of long-gone family members. Me as a baby. 

Memories from high school. 

A person wouldn't know it to look at me now, but I was active in athletics back then. My class was the first class to have athletics for GIRLS - Girls Athletic Association or GAA. 

 

Of course, there were cheerleaders at all the boys events. I was not a cheerleader. I wasn't that flexible. I was in Band and Marching Band, playing the flute and later as the Drum Majorette. I participated in Volleyball, Tennis and Track, competing in the 100 yard dash and was on the 440 Relay team - we went to STATE!

That was a big deal.

Sadly, there were many things I had to tell my mom I just didn't have the room for and wouldn't be taking with me. Lots of books, dishes, vases, decorative items. I am trying to clear out my house too. I know my son will not be physically able to deal with cleaning out a house and I don't want him to have to make the decision of what to do with it all. She was ok with that. She said she wasn't emotionally invested in most of it. Whew, that was a relief. Now we just need to figure out what to do with it all. 

The weather forecast while we were there kept getting worse with predictions of rain/sleet/ice/snow. Son and I left Wednesday morning with a car fully loaded with things we did decide to take. He is taking tools from Dad's shop. I dropped him at his house which left my car half empty and headed home. I got home before the snow started.

My parents got snow, Son got freezing rain, I got snow. It continued through the night and the roads were slick the next day. 

Today I watched the sun coming up, a sight I hadn't seen for a while.

It was warmish and sunny all day, but as I look out the window tonight I can see it is snowing again. I really am ready for Spring.