Mama Nick
I just talked to Paul's mother who is back in the hospital after only three or four days in the assisted living center. She was in physical therapy there yesterday morning and suddenly went limp. It is inconclusive - the doctor ordered another scan today - but evidently she had two TIAs (mini-strokes). She is at Carrington House to recuperate from compressed vertebrae and injection of gel to relieve the pressure on her spine, for which she had been hospitalized for about three weeks. When I talked to her Sunday evening she said she was weak; and then Monday morning the TIAs. Time and age just seem to be chipping away at her. But don't they chip at all of us?
"I expect I'll go home tomorrow. Oh, not home, but back to the nursing home," she said. "It's just taken a lot out of me; I'm not myself."
Herself would be walking to the mailbox every day and driving the short distance to Aunt Ginny's. Herself would be mowing her big yard on her riding lawn mower, which she loved, before the first big stroke 3 years ago. Herself would be making muscadine jelly and homemade biscuits. Herself would be writing a letter every week to us "out in Arkansas."
What an incredible woman. She is strong of faith, character, stamina. She has never whined or been a woe-is-me type person, even in the worst of times. Oh, she will tell the facts and long for the everyday things she used to do: I just can't read like I used to, you know, this eye was affected by the stroke...; I'm just not as strong as I was; I don't need to go to the mailbox out in this cold; I wish I could drive (further than Virginia's) but I know I would endanger myself or someone on the highway. But never saying, oh, why did this happen to me; I just don't know what I'm going to do; I just feel awful every day and don't want to get out of bed. Always getting up, getting dressed, establishing her routine. Always cooking a little something for us when we go visit, and at those times we try to impress upon her not to cook, not to do anything extra. But there has always been the little pan of homemade hamburger soup, the hamburger patties, the peaches, vanilla ice cream, and Sock-It-To-Me cake. Now these are probably soon to be part of the other memories we cherish. But then... She always surprises us - comes back, not as strong, but still fighting.
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