Reading Aloud--No Tux, No British Accent

                                                            Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Dear Kathy and Suzy,

            Good news for Kathy’s birthday:  Mom was in a really good state today—not at all as if she’d been bathed nude by a man! 

            I got there an hour later than usual because a friend with compounded cancer (I thought he said confounded, and I could see that too—confounded and confounding), told me that he woke up feeling much more energetic than usual and 10:00 would be a good time for me to visit him. 

            But after an hour with him and his wife, I headed towards PH, where I found Mom at the dining room table with good things to say about the lunch. 

            “All of the lunch was good.  The cake is good.” 

            She’d actually finished eating, but she was still sitting with Ada, Ella Mae, and Carol.  Mom tried to get Dorothy to join us too because she was sitting several feet away but facing us.  We invited May to join us, and she did. 

            I’d finally remembered to bring the clippings I’d been saving to read with Mom, and people at the table seemed pretty interested in the articles though they had trouble reading them themselves.  Ada lost her place a couple of time on the first sentence.  Mom read well but started the first paragraph at one point instead finishing the last. 

            The article was about a British man who’d raised money for AIDS by reading out loud for $1.00 a minute, but I told them that I wouldn’t charge that much since I don’t have a British accent or a tux, and that $1.00- a-minute man (who called himself a callboy since people called him for his services) had both. 

            They were even more interested in an article about a cat who was adopted by a chimpanzee and refused to be rescued by the zoo keepers.  I want to get Mom the whole book, which is called Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland, a conservation biologist.   

            I haven’t taken any pictures for a long time because the initial purpose was to show Mom that we’d been there, and she went through that period of not wanting to have more visitors than other people, whose moms and dads never visited them.  But today I did take a picture, and I’ll send it to you separately.

            Mom seemed in very good spirits. 

            I can’t say the same for Ada.  Ada didn’t eat any of her lunch, and lately she’s seemed really depressed.  But she did smile and show an interest in the cat and chimpanzee pair and in the story I told them about the dog and elephant who became good friends at an elephant sanctuary. 

            I wonder whether they changed Ada’s medicine after she hurt her hand.  Frank’s two daughters (I guess they were) came to visit him.

            I asked Mom whether she knew what today was, and I hope she didn’t think that was an Alzheimer’s test.  (I just finished a really good novel called Small World by a Swiss author Jutta recommended, and the hero strenuously objects to the questions used.)  When I told her it was Kathy’s birthday, Mom said, “Oh, my God!  The ninth?”  I said, “The nineteenth,” and she wanted to call you, so we did.  Unfortunately there was something wrong with my iPhone, so there was no “end call” place to press.  I hope we didn’t use all your message space!

            Mom seemed to feel that there was some activity to participate in at 1:30, but I saw nothing listed except a Portugal talk in the Activity Room at 1:00, and Mom wasn’t interested in that.  She and Ada both expressed contempt for the BINGO game at 3:00, too, so I guess Mom’s forgotten how much fun she has had with that. 

            At around 1:30, an aide put together two tables including ours and she and Divina brought out the giant jigsaw puzzle pieces, but Mom looked a little bit anxious.  I got her some clay and we started to scuplt a heart together, but I left before the heart was fully rendered.    

            Overall, Mom seemed happy and really “with it.”

            Love,

            Tina

Picture with the following:  Mom showed me a Safeway ad and said they were having quite a sale so she thought she would get a few things.  But when I asked her what she'd like to get, she really couldn't find anything. 

When I asked them who their favorite writers were, nobody could say except Mom, and she said, "Hemingway."  I don't think so!  But maybe at one time...and maybe that time has come again...We did invite Kay to join us, but she stayed put.