I
had thought that Mom had remembered the birthday of her great-granddaughter
Emily Pearl when Kathy asked me for her address, but it was Kathy who saw it on
the calendar and brought Mom a card to send her along with a lot of Pepperidge
Farm cookies, six of which Mom ate. Even
Kay had one. Mom added a note and signed
the card without adding any confessions of murder. It was a good day.
It
was a good day when I visited too—for Mom and for a couple of other people I thought
had no “outsiders” coming in or even looking in.
Tuesday,
May 24, 2011
Dear
Kathy and Suzy,
I arrived about 1:00, and Mom was very sleepy. I think she really wanted
to nap, but because of Kay, she got up and went out with me to the big table,
where she was very polite and sociable but maybe not having as good a time as I
was.
Sybil came by with a new pair of
incredibly comfortable shoes on her feet—a gift from her wonderful daughter,
she said—and she told us with great joy about her wonderful daughter’s getting
a beautiful place at Rossmoor (Why not Aegis?) by selling her house to a man
who gave her cash right out of his pocket because he said people could take
advantage of women by giving them checks, and yet probably women were smarter
than men! She didn’t stay with us for long because she said she was
just so tired from having such a wonderful time.
But Ada joined us, and Franz came by
and stood by and I think maybe he wanted to show me something (that male
vegetation?), but I kept making eye contact the way I do with all flashers and
other exhibitionists. Mom kept telling me to “Read, read! Keep
going! Keep going!” as if she was struggling to stay awake and only the
most animated reading could help her.
She also didn’t want my reading to
lapse so Ada would start reading I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like.
(I took along Pepperidge Farm Cookies, and Mom devoured them.) We read
that pandas aren’t really bears (they’re raccoons!) and ukuleles didn’t
originate from Hawaii (Portugal) although their name did. When I pointed
out the similarity between lele in Hawaiian and in Tongan and told Mom
and Ada about fakaleles, Mom thought it was scandalous, and I guess the
prefix faka (meaning pertaining to in Tongan) isn’t a word a
daughter can really explain without saying it more times than a mother wants to
hear it, so finally I desisted, but I swear that the vowel sound is totally
different from that other word!
While Ada was with us she recognized two women coming towards us, and sure
enough they were there to take her out. They identified themselves
playfully as the Bobbsey Twins, and Ada asked, “If you’re the Bobbsey Twins,
then who am I?” and they said she was part of the Bobbsey Trio. I asked
whether I could take a picture of the Trio, and one of the women asked me to
send her the picture and gave me her card (Eldercare Services/Advocacy,
Care, and Education—Chris Rose-Franks, PTA, MPA, CMC What does all that
mean?) She said she’d send it on to Ada’s family. And off the three
of them went.
So this was a good day for a couple of people
who have never before been visited while I was there. (I was hoping Ada’s
visitors would take her to a beautiful park because she loves to walk outdoors,
but they said they usually go to Starbuck’s. Does that constitute elder
abuse?) Anyway, I’m
so glad that Mom has family (the Loss-Martin Trio) or friend (Nan) coming
every day…though I wonder whether Mom is so glad when she really wants to sleep
and could do that even with Kay in the room but not with me there!
I was thinking that this was a good
time to be going to Germany because Mom’s doing better and needing less of
me…and then I read “Volcano’s ash cloud alters Obama’s plan, halts flights.”
Love,
Tina
PS
Mom looks really beautiful—sometimes incredibly old in face and body, but
there’s something about her facial features being more defined that makes her
look really beautiful. I remember a picture of her at about 16 that shows
those same features, minus the multitude of wrinkles.
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