Subject: Mom Saturday,
July 23, 2011
Dear
Suzy,
I had the chance to talk in person to Kathy today, so I’ll address this to you
with a copy to her. Mom was similar to how she was yesterday, having both
good and bad moments.
When I first arrived (at 11:00 a.m.), I saw everyone out on the patio behind
the Perry dining room, and she was reading the newspaper. Hymns and
patriotic songs were being played, and I wondered just how this fit into the
theme for the day (according to the Aegis calendar), which was “Gorgeous
Grandma Day.”
By the time I’d made it around the
corner and in, she was no longer on the patio, and when I saw her she said, “I
feel horrible. They’re holding me to a promise, and I don’t know what I
promised to do.”
We sat down in the sitting room, and
Ada joined us, but she’s still showing a very different mood (I hesitate to say
personality) from the one she showed before. I noticed a new collage on
the bulletin board, and when I started to look at it, Mom said, “I’ve seen
those pictures so often I’m bored by them. Look at them another
time.” So I sat back down.
Mom was particularly interested in
reading—anything. I’d gone through the newspaper carefully the day before
and decided against the very ones she was reading like “How will police spin
Bayview death now?” She read death now as death row. When she read
the ammunition for the .380, instead of saying point three eight zero, she
said, period three eight zero. I’m not sure how much she
understood of what she read, but she did say a couple of times, “This paragraph
is very poorly written.” When she stumbled over a sentence, she said,
“That’s kind of bad English.”
Then I showed her the Pets magazine
I’d brought, and she liked that and even asked for her own copy. I said
she could keep the one I brought, and she said, “But then you’ll be without
it.” I told her I could get another. She looked at the pictures and
read the captions and said, “Isn’t that cute!” with a certain amount of
enthusiasm.
I had planned to leave at noon to meet Kathy (the birthday you celebrated ahead
of time), but Mom wanted me to stay for lunch.
“Aren’t you staying?” she asked me, and when I
said, “Not today,” she said, “Oh, hell!” But then when the server came,
she said, “Okay, you can go. This nice man has rescued me.”
I plan to go back tomorrow, but that will depend a little bit on Karl.
His plane come in at 8:30. I may meet him at BART instead of at the
airport and then go on to see Mom, or I may wait until evening after the
meeting of the Club Toruno-Martin.
Karl is renting a U-Haul. I think he has to get his stuff out
tomorrow. When is your move?
Let me know how I can help you.
Love,
Tina
PS
Kathy and I talked about what to say to Mom about Kathy’s absence, and I think
Kathy hit upon the perfect explanation: We can tell Mom that Kathy
is going down to see her Aunt Mary in Pasadena, which Kathy will be doing at
the end!
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