Kid Day Continued

Kid-Day Continued…

My mother has a private room. I don’t know if that is good or bad, having a private room sounds good but she sure seems isolated. She has a window which opens up on an enclosed court yard being used to day by smokers. The court yard is enclosed an has ample access to the sun. No wind, direct sunlight a perfect place to sit and hibernate and dream of Autumns long past. Mom continued to wake as we spoke. T’s hard to visit someone and not ask how they are dong. But as I have learned in the past couple of weeks every-time I ask Mom this question she responds by telling me just how much pain she is in an there is nothing I can do but say that I am sorry and move to a new topic.

I ask about the food, and says the food is good when she can eat-she feels she is still being affected by the radiation she endured a coupe of weeks ago. She hopes she will be eating better shortly. She fell Saturday morning getting into the shower. I think she was kidding when I asked if she was tripped and she said “maybe!!” Nothing broke but a nasty bruise. She shows me.

The phone rings and Mom starts to struggle to get the princess phone on the night stand behind her head. I move my power chair forward and get the receiver knocking the rest of the phone onto the floor. This has got to change. It’s my sister Irene one of her grand kids had delivered another child 20 lbs(?!! than cannot be right but is what I remember). I try not to listen finally opting to roll out into the hall and cruise a while. That’s when I notice that Mom’s room is right next to the nursing station where a gaggle or telling stories and yoking it up. They’re very loud then I heard the radio…Billy Joel, the Beach Boys and Meat Loaf and other choices of light to medium light rock. These are great sounds for me and my peers but for seniors from the twenties and before this music selection must be beyond weird. Mom told me she shad scrapped her arm on the edge of the wall in her bathroom. I opened the door and looked side and was immediately assaulted by the odor…it was “that” odor had long associated with Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs). The bouquet of fragrances rendered from feces, urine and disinfectant. The odor was a challenge but amazingly confined to this bathroom. I was impressed.

Mom finally cleared the line and we visited for a moment when my cousin ad her married daughter entered the room. It was getting busy. I mingled with them and they with Mom- they left after short—or long- twenty minutes—Mom was beginning to doze so I took my time to leave as well. I took my leave promising to call and visit next week. And will visit next week and the week after that. This is my new Kid Day, my way of paying the debt and being their for mom as she always was for me. Kid days never end…