Kid Day

When my kids were small and living in the same city as me we would do Kid Day every Saturday. I would drag my self out of bed fairly early for a Saturay morning and, shower dress and try to get over to the kid’s place about 10:00 to grab them and be off for what ever a single dad with a car load of kids which might be fun and on the cheap side. Wow, I thought those day were over with kids grown and living in other cities in other states. Those kids living in my city usually work on Saturday or seem to be involved in their own lives. Which s fine and cool with me. We see the one granddaughter frequently and the other granddaughter is small yet and we see her only when Mark brings her round. I don’t know quite yet how to be a grandfather—or a good grandfather. The only guidelines I had was my Grandfather Joseph. I loved and love my Grandfather Joseph. Grandfather Joseph was a Mormon, a devout Mormon. When I was very young Grandfather J. lived in the same city and I did not see him often then they moved away and I saw them ony weeks a year. I saw my dad’s Dad Granddad Charlie even less. Granddad Charlie lived in Canada and we saw the once every couple of years. But these are other stories I will get to one day—suffice to say. I am still learning my parental and grand parental roles.

Today was beautiful, a perfect Fall day. The air was chilled but bright and clear. No question of the seasonal change now. Summer is gone gone. The frost has visited and the leaves which were questioning whether to turn or not have gotten their “turning orders” everything outside is beautiful. Today was the day I was going to finally visit my Mom in the LTC(long term care Center). I delayed the visit by an hour or two by stopping over at Al’s, my neighbor.

I actually drove over to the Center on surface streets not trusting my wheels for Interstate travel, just yet. I finally made it out to Sandy about fifty block south of my home in Murray. I really am not conscience of my disability too much but I can tell visiting my mom is going to make me so. I downloaded from my van and went into the building. There were staff out back smoking : young folk sentenced to a job they would never have considered except they were desperate for rent, care payment school what ever. They eyed me like the fish who had got away.

I zoomed up the walk and into the building up to an abandoned front desk and signed in. A nice building, the odor was not present I have grown to associate with care facilities. This is good. I wanted to find my mom’s room on my own but finally had to ask and then was led through the building to room 302.

There she was laying on top of her bed. She seemed small on that narrow little hospital bed. The TV hanging out of the ceiling was on the Hallmark Station and is Hallmark’s Western Saturday: cowboys in great definition blowing people up and riding horses in deep snow. It seemed an odd viewing choice. Mom was sleeping or dozing and I called her name and she stirred, opened her eyes and finally registered that it was me sitting infront of her and not a dream. To be continued…