Day: December 22, 2018

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Visiting Helen, Sr.

Bow Tie o’ Yesterday is worn by Skitter. It’s a black-and-white, checked number. It’s not a holiday bow tie, so it won’t add to our holiday tie total, but who the heck cares? Here sit Mom and Skitter in Mom’s room at MCR. I think this is one of my all-time fave photos of Mom. The ever-so slight smile on her face as she looks down at Skitter is just plain full of love and sweetness. As I’ve mentioned before, Skitter is the only mutt Mom has ever warmed up to. And I do mean ever in her life. And despite Skitter’s skittishness and paranoia, she and Mom gravitated to each other the minute we introduced them five years ago.

Skitter was a hit at MCR, as I’m sure all canine visitors are. I was pleased with how she handled the new situation. Big building. Lots of people. Lots of folks petting her. She did shake, but not bigly. And she was like velcro to me wherever we went– except in Mom’s room, where Skitter and Mom acted like Suzanne and I weren’t even there. Overall, Skitter did enjoy her outing, despite her fears. She is already nagging us about going back to visit Grandma ASAP.

When we walked into Mom’s room at MCR, Mom immediately beamed. And she wasn’t beaming because of my smashing wintry cape. She wasn’t even beaming about Suzanne being there. Nope. When Mom saw Skitter in the flesh… er, in the fur, she almost blew a happy gasket. (I have no idea what a gasket is, but I know the saying. And I know it has something to do with a car.) In fact, when Skitter and Mom saw each other, the scene was like those sappy movies where two people see each other across a field and they run to each other and embrace for the rest of their lives, or until the movie ends. Well, it wasn’t exactly like that, but it was close. We tried to keep Skitter at the bottom of Mom’s bed, but she kept inching her way up to Mom’s side, which was perfectly enjoyable to Mom.

Please notice Mom’s new cozy house jacket. Her friend, Judie Curtis, stopped by to visit Mom while we were there. Heck, Judie even showed up with gifts for me and Suzanne. Judie is Mom’s “favorite daughter,” and Judie never let’s us forget it. That makes Judie my “favorite sister.”

As always, Mom was in feisty, funny spirits yesterday. But I think we sort of caught her on a bad day. Her blood sugar was way way way way too high, so it was a little difficult for her to keep up with the finer points of our conversations and humor. She was still herself though– especially when the staff told her she is no longer allowed to drink Pepsi until her blood sugar gets back into whack. She was very vocal about how important her drinking is to her, and about how yucky Diet Pepsi tastes to her. She mentioned it many times. Loudly. It was gripe, gripe, gripe. In a mostly-funny way, of course. But she drank the Diet Pepsi anyway. And she drank more than one.

I love that shrinking woman.

Our HOLIDAY TIE TALLY holds at 76 Bow ties, and 147 neckties.