Dad is doing fine except in one area: Saying "please." He's pretty good about saying "thank you" when I bring him something to eat, massage the horrible scar that runs down his calf (it goes higher, but he's in charge of above-the-knee scar therapy), put his bandages on or take them off, etc. He told me today that both he and my mom have trouble remembering to say "please."
But dad's okay. It's grandma that's not.
My mom's mother died yesterday. This completes a trifecta of stressors on my mom — husband having a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery, the car getting stolen and now this. She's not really that stressed about the car, but getting a rental to go up to Etowah and figuring out how to keep dad with a caretaker through Monday (when Grandma's funeral is being held, and Doug and I are going to go for the day) is the sort of thing that she doesn't need but has to deal with anyway.
Grandma has been really sick for a long, long time, so this wasn't a shock or anything. Grandma even wanted to die for months — if not longer. But it's depressing and sad nonetheless, and I keep thinking about Pa. He just lived for her for so long. She died at home and with two of her daughters and Pa around her, which is probably more than most people with her kind of health problems and age can be assured of.
Grandma was really cool. She was just a super grandma to me and all the other cousins. She loved her family unreservedly. She liked to keep up with the news of Lepanto/Marked Tree/Etowah, but not the world so much. Before she got real sick she had to have her morning coffee and smoke. The last time I talked to her I said, "I love you," and she said, "Who's ugly? Who's ugly?" and I repeated myself and we ended up agreeing that everybody we knew was pretty. And that's really how she felt.
Anyway, that's the report from Loretta Lane.
Maybe we've turned a corner, though. The insurance company is willing to write off the stolen car (recovered, banged-up, from a ditch) as a total loss and the folks are getting some cash money for it.
1 comment:
This is the kind of time when being physically closer would help everyone. It's hard to think of you all going through so much and we're 1500 miles away in Florida. This is all too hard to really comprehend. Our hearts go out to you and we feel a closeness that our distance doesn't reflect. We're just so sorry that your Grandma, Mother, Mother-in-law had to go at all, much less at this tramatic time. She will be remembered with so much love. Looking at the family she nourished, I'd say she was quite a special woman who led a remarkablely memorable life. Love to you all and our deepest sympathy. Sandy and Charles
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