IS MY HUSBAND COMING ?
I call my mom everyday to say hello and to remind her of who is coming to see her. On Saturday when I called my mom I found our conversation rather interesting. I usually can tell immediately how my mom is doing as we begin our conversations. I knew that Ruthie was somewhat confused this day. I first said hello and sang her a small verse of Sugar Pie Honey which she giggled about. My mom then asked me when is her husband coming. I knew she meant my brother and I was certainly not going to cause her any unnecessary pain about my dad passing away many years ago.
My dad actually passed away sixteen years ago. My brother Gil is the main"attraction" for mom as a male figure. Gil sees my mom once a week on Wednesday's. On that day they go out for lunch, food shop & sing songs together from watching You Tube videos, which my mom enjoys so much.
I venture back to her question and this is my response to her. "Mom you mean my brother Gil. He'll be coming on Wednesday and today is Saturday". Ruthie answered "oh yes"(as if to say I meant my son, not husband). Ruthie then counted out loud," Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday". Then she said" he's coming in five days". Yes, mom you got that correct and I think to myself how thankful I am that she still can count. I added in the conversation that she had just seen my brother three days ago.
"Mom today Trudy is coming to visit". Of course mom said "who's Trudy"? I explained that to her that Trudy is Elaine's daughter . Mom asked "who's Elaine" so I told her that Elaine was her friend (caregiver)who comes everyday to visit. " Mom, Trudy is the nice young girl you call Trudy the Beauty, and you always tell me how much you like her. Mom so who am I, Lisa the what"? Ruthie immediately says you are Lisa the Pisa and we both laugh. "Mom and you are Ruthie the what"? Mom answers "it doesn't really matter". So I change the subject.
She then said that she had to go to the bathroom. I thought of reminding mom to flush the toilet yet I decided to just let it be. Mom would say anyway, "I always flush the toilet(which is not what happens). There are signs posted by the toilets(Flush Toilet) which mom seems not to notice. So when Trudy arrives at mom's I'm sure that she'll be flushing mom's toilets.
I'm so lucky to be able to still share what seems like these childish conversations with my mom. I really find her so cute and rather refreshing. For me her childlike quality is touching and I treasure that I still have my mom in whatever shape or form My mom today, is still my hero.
Mom swears she fell and broke her hip while shopping at the mall with daddy (he died in 2006) and he wanted her to try on clothes, so she went to the dressing room and there was a stool that said "use this for trying on clothes. provided for your convenience." When she did, it toppled over and she fell and broke her hip.
ReplyDeleteIn truth I had bought mom a stool at asst living to sit on to put on her makeup and comb her hair, as she was really miss fashion queen. We moved it to the nursing home when we moved her things, thinking she probably would need it for the same thing. However, she sat down on it to put on her pants and while lifting one leg into a pantsleg, the stool tuned over and she fell and broke her hip. It had no signs on it to be used for dressing, no signs at all. It is now at my house. The memories get tangled up in other memories. The dendrites get relayed to other dendrite memory channels. I'm sure daddy took her shoppping at the mall at some point, but probably not within the last 15 years.