Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Things that suck

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008
11:05 p.m.
I’ve been back from our Thanksgiving jaunt for more than 24 hours, but am just now finding the time to write something about the trip. For the most part, it was a very nice weekend. Hubby and I drove to Toronto on Friday, arriving at Buddy Boy’s around 7:00 p.m., picked him up and descended on his sister and her BF about a half-hour later. We found an Indian restaurant and had a truly fine dinner with much hilarity, and then adjourned to Little Princess’ and sat around smoking sheesha from the BF’s new two-hose hookah (they smoked, I did not). They’ve done a nice job with their apartment, and it looks like real people live there, not students.

Hubby and I brought an air mattress and linen to sleep on, but unfortunately we forgot the pump, so I ended up sleeping on the sofa and he made a bed on the rug with a couple of sleeping bags for cushioning.

The next morning I called my mom to warn her we were coming to visit, and she freaked me out on the phone. She said she hated where she was, she wanted to go home, and I didn’t know what to say. So I just said, “Hang in there. We’ll be to see you in an hour.” When we got there, Buddy Boy was waiting for us, and we went up to her room. Little Princess made tea, and she seemed quite happy, at least she was happy to see us. After tea we took her for a walk along the street and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the gorgeous fall colours. Then we left her so she could have her lunch.

While I was there, I got a chance to talk to the nurses. My mother complained that if there are activities, no one tells her about them. There was a calendar on her coffee table outlining everything that happens daily, the movies being shown, the card games, the exercises, the concerts. She can’t see it to read it. She also can’t hear the announcements coming over the loudspeaker system that inform the residents of activities.

The nurses told me, however, that my mother is very active at the centre. In the morning, she’s up early and in the nursing station, chatting with them. They’re all very impressed with her intelligence and the fact that she’s always trying to teach them something. Someone comes to take her to meals, and also to afternoon and evening activities. But she remembers none of this.

I just got an email from my brother with the neurologist’s report and he is diagnosing her with an Alzheimer’s dementia complicated by severe macular degeneration. I don’t think the impact of this bit of news has quite sunk in yet. But I am getting more and more depressed about it by the minute.

The rest of the weekend was lovely. We celebrated an early 50th birthday for Hubby up at his sister’s place on Saturday night, and then had Thanksgiving on Sunday with Turkey and all the fixin’s. My brother-in-law barbecued salmon for us, and I made the cranberry sauce and the mashed potatoes. There were three kinds of pie: pumpkin, apple and strawberry-rhubarb, which finally got renamed rhuberry. Yes, a lot of wine was drunk.

We drove home yesterday after dropping the kids off at their respective abodes, and it was so hard saying goodbye to them that I felt an emptiness for hours after we were on the road. The fall colours were stunning, though, and that helped to make the drive a little more enjoyable.

Today was voting day in Canada as we had a federal election. My Spanish class ended up being cancelled, which actually worked out perfectly for me and I was able to cast my ballot at the polling booth set up in the lobby of one of the campus residences. I haven’t paid any attention to the election results, prefering to be surprised tomorrow morning than stay up late to watch the returns tonight. Nothing really ever changes anyway. Let’s just hope it’s not a majority Conservative government. That would truly suck.



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