By the time we got into town, mom had been transferred to a step down unit but still needed family there in order to be encouraged to eat. I was super sick with a sinus infection so I couldn’t help at the hospital.
But as I felt a little better, I would go over to mom’s house to clear out some space for us to move in with her for a while if she was able to come home. Mom had collected a lot of nic nacs over the years, and a lot of silk plant arrangements, books, etc. which wouldn’t be easy to deal with later. So I carefully packed up the items that I felt she would want or family would want and put it all in the garage.Mom spent several weeks in rehab and then came home January 29. She has been recovering slowly but is in good spirits. She has had a lot of family and friends in to see her and a lot of therapists of various stripes. We have hired a home care company to send in respite care givers so Kevin and I can run errands and take care of our house.
Mom is cooperative and cheerful. She is easy to care for. The only challenge is modifying her house to suit our needs without disturbing her surroundings too much. And it’s been hard to get together with our family, which we miss.
But I still get to art class twice a week and Kevin gets his running in. We are bringing my art studio table, easels, painting supplies etc. over to mom’s next week so I can continue getting ready for a couple of shows I have coming up. And we bought a new bed (King) for one of the rooms. Mom’s spare bedroom beds were too small. We are basically taking over but I don’t feel bad about it. We need to make ourselves comfortable so we can stay longer. Who knows how long we will be able to care for mom in her home? But we are giving her a chance to recover as much as she can.
