good morning friday morning
No car (yet - hopefully Dave will be able to fix it today) and I have work I have put off that should be done. Jewelry work and business work. Today is the day to wrap that up.
Helen wasn't as bad as I feared she would be yesterday. Her mind was unmoored and traveled back and forth through time. Sometimes she was with me and other times gone. She ate a little on her own, though she is extremely thin. It was very difficult to hear what she was telling me - hard to follow the words and the sense. Exhausting to me to be focused so intently on deciphering words. I don't hear that well anyway. Next time I go I will take more old photos that Helen and I can discuss. I'm sure that will help a lot. I found some other people around her interesting (we were in the dining room before lunch time as everyone gathered). A little bird woman all in red and pink came up to me with a huge smile and then ducked her head down onto the pillow on her lap in shyness. I complimented her on her colors - the color of health and vitality - and she gave me another big smile before she steered herself away with her feet. A man came back from a visit with the dentist, very angry and shouting but after sitting at our table for a time he calmed down and we got to talking about the show Bonanza that was playing on the TV nearby - I told him my favorite character was Hoss. Hoss? He was a little surprised at that but approved. He had mystery pureed food on his plate that he didn't want to eat or even taste. To look at it no one would have any idea what it was. I figured it out for him by looking at the plate of the one person at the table who had regular food - it was probably ground ham, pureed potato salad and Mandarin oranges. He only ate the pureed oranges. There is so much food thrown away in nursing homes. I hope they have a deal with a local hog farm for the leftovers. I remember when taking care of mom and dad that it was the same way - so much food got dumped - after a while I got used to it though. In the beginning we saved everything and tried to get them to eat it for the next meal. Waste not want not had been ingrained in us - by them. After a while we learned - make up only very small servings.
Helen wasn't as bad as I feared she would be yesterday. Her mind was unmoored and traveled back and forth through time. Sometimes she was with me and other times gone. She ate a little on her own, though she is extremely thin. It was very difficult to hear what she was telling me - hard to follow the words and the sense. Exhausting to me to be focused so intently on deciphering words. I don't hear that well anyway. Next time I go I will take more old photos that Helen and I can discuss. I'm sure that will help a lot. I found some other people around her interesting (we were in the dining room before lunch time as everyone gathered). A little bird woman all in red and pink came up to me with a huge smile and then ducked her head down onto the pillow on her lap in shyness. I complimented her on her colors - the color of health and vitality - and she gave me another big smile before she steered herself away with her feet. A man came back from a visit with the dentist, very angry and shouting but after sitting at our table for a time he calmed down and we got to talking about the show Bonanza that was playing on the TV nearby - I told him my favorite character was Hoss. Hoss? He was a little surprised at that but approved. He had mystery pureed food on his plate that he didn't want to eat or even taste. To look at it no one would have any idea what it was. I figured it out for him by looking at the plate of the one person at the table who had regular food - it was probably ground ham, pureed potato salad and Mandarin oranges. He only ate the pureed oranges. There is so much food thrown away in nursing homes. I hope they have a deal with a local hog farm for the leftovers. I remember when taking care of mom and dad that it was the same way - so much food got dumped - after a while I got used to it though. In the beginning we saved everything and tried to get them to eat it for the next meal. Waste not want not had been ingrained in us - by them. After a while we learned - make up only very small servings.