When I arrived this morning, mom was sitting up in bed and eating breakfast. She gave me a wide grin and was so happy and surprised to see me. Today, mom ate a huge breakfast of Fiber One cereal, apple-berry sauce, eggs with spinach and turkey slices and whole wheat toast. Even though her left hand is pretty much hooked and in a claw shape, mom manages to use it in a functional way---like to hold a bowl of cereal while she scoops with a spoon. Mom was actually cutting her turkey with a knife while stabilizing it with a fork this morning at breakfast!! I told mom again that our childhood friends/cousin, Mark and Tommy, ask for her and prayer for her. She was soooo touched! I had told mom last week that I had a promotion at work and today she asked me if I started to work in my new position and whether the new position involved a lot more work!! She remembered!! Mom complained that a small mole behind her left ear hurt so I asked her if I should put tissues there as a buffer between her eyeglasses and the mole and she said, “No!! I’ll look crazy!!!” and laughed. Dad called mom this morning, as he always does, and when mom hung up, she said, “”Oh my God, where did I get such a man?!”
Mom made phone calls next. After she spoke to dad, she called Anthony and spoke to him and Sammy. Sammy is turning 14 tomorrow!! Mom said she couldn’t believe that she was going to be so old and that, “It was just yesterday that I was changing all you kids’ diapers!!!” Mom talked to Con and Anthony Michael on the phone too. Then she called Aunt Carol and they talked for a while. Mom was very on target and relevant with her conversation.
Mom said she wanted to just sit and do nothing all day!! She was teasing me and said, “I only have to do something because you are here, Kathy!!” Then she tried to write a card for Sammy’s birthday tomorrow. She began to write the card but then spoke on the phone and began to take notes about the phone conversation instead. She tried to read what she wrote and laughed and laughed and laughed because she couldn’t read what she wrote! What a difference from last night! She laughed at how she spelled some of the words and read these words phonetically!! She would read a non-word she wrote and pronounce it and laugh and say, “What the heck is that?!!!” Writing is a challenge for her because she has to translate what she is thinking into written symbols. She is hysterical today!! She wrote the non-word, “M-E-N-I-N-G-U-S” and read it and laughed so hard!!! Then she wrote Sam’s birthday card. She wrote: “Dear Samantha, So you are 14?!! Happy Birthday!! You are growing up so quickly! I can’t get you a monkey, but your father is a monkey so you don’t need one. Stick to asking your father for a dog…so you don’t need one (a monkey). Love Nonny” She came up with all this by herself!! Then she drew a heart and wrote “Nonny loves Sam” in it. The heart was actually drawn as 2 circles side by side.
Lenny came next and mom and Lenny played a word building game. There are blocks with letters on them like, “ack” or “Sn” or “ig” or “b” etc. You combine the blocks to form words like “snack” or “big” etc. Lenny combined the blocks and mom read the words and then wrote the words. Mom and I played the Candy Game next. She needed a lot of verbal prompting (clues) along with some pointing.
Donna and Anthony came to visit with mom, Lenny and I next. Donna brought mom some fresh fruit and mom commented on how pretty Donna looked. (Dad calls Donna their 4th daughter). We all talked and looked at pictures of upstate after the hurricane. After Lenny and Donna left, dad, Anthony and I helped mom stand with the walker. We practiced about 12 times. By the end, mom was able to pull herself up alone and stand to a count of 20 practically straight up!!!
I left Dad and Anthony with mom in the early afternoon. Dad said that mom had a nice afternoon. Dad put mom to bed tonight.
“Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” Deuteronomy 32:2
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