Omigosh, It's December!
Mom was back in the nursing home Friday evening. She'd been gone nearly three weeks, long enough to make the bus trip from Main Street seem almost nostalgic. I marveled once again at how no two homes along the route looked the same, how close and intimate the yards and shaded windows looked even as the bus driver expertly maneuvered around parked SUVs and Range Rovers, narrowly missing their fenders at each stop.
It reminded me of that feeling we had during those first few months, five and a half years ago, when we were so relieved that we had found a place where Mom could get proper treatment for her painful bed sores and someone else could help in getting more food into her mouth. Those were the days before the feeding tube, when Mom was still permitted the tactile sensation of watermelon and freshly picked tomatoes on the tip of her tongue; when she could still enjoy a little a little cheese pinched off the top of a hot slice of pizza.
Those first couple of years are long gone and it was odd to think of them as halcyon days as I observed the long shadows gathering outside the bus window last Friday afternoon. It suddenly came as a shock that the trees were nearly bare. Thanks to the unusually warm weather, December had arrived (along with Advent) before I'd even noticed it.
It reminded me of that feeling we had during those first few months, five and a half years ago, when we were so relieved that we had found a place where Mom could get proper treatment for her painful bed sores and someone else could help in getting more food into her mouth. Those were the days before the feeding tube, when Mom was still permitted the tactile sensation of watermelon and freshly picked tomatoes on the tip of her tongue; when she could still enjoy a little a little cheese pinched off the top of a hot slice of pizza.
Those first couple of years are long gone and it was odd to think of them as halcyon days as I observed the long shadows gathering outside the bus window last Friday afternoon. It suddenly came as a shock that the trees were nearly bare. Thanks to the unusually warm weather, December had arrived (along with Advent) before I'd even noticed it.