Time, time, time, see what�s become of me?
9:08 p.m.
As I have mentioned before, my mother has always been a very independent woman, and her biggest fear is losing that independence. This makes it very hard for her to prepare in advance for contingencies, like going blind, and she was quite shocked by the suddenness of this new development. She has been experiencing strange visual phenomena, such as opening her book to the page she was reading and instead of seeing letters and words, she would see music notation on staves. I believe that her mind is trying to compensate for the fact that her retinas are betraying her. But this goes in and out, and the music will fade and she�ll see words again. Most recently she saw nothing.
I�m the first person she has spoken to about this new development. Even my brother, whom she sees regularly (once a week) is unaware of exactly how bad it�s gotten. I think this is a mistake on her part. He should know because she�s going to need him more and more to be her eyes, especially where looking after her finances is concerned. zitagsd recommended that she seek out a �mobility counsellor�, a person specialized in helping people losing their sight adapt to their new situation. I recommended this to Mummy, and she thought it was a little premature, that it wasn�t �that bad yet�. I told her that it was best to be prepared, since this was only going to get worse. If she wants to continue to rely on her own resources, she will have to learn how to deal with this handicap.
Anyway, I have faith that she�ll see this through, as she has so many other things. She may be old, but she�s still smart and she is extremely determined to �not be a burden� on my brother. This is good.
In other news, the sun was in my eyes this morning as I was updating my diary with yesterday�s news, and I ended up totally rearranging the computer situation in the reading room. We call it the reading room, I'm not quite sure why (maybe because in the original plans for the house it was called salle de lecture), and it does have several bookcases containing a complete set of Brittanica encyclopaedias (we started it in 1986), as well as lots and lots of novels and non-fiction books. But we also have four wide shelves of LPs, I keep my music score collection in here (what�s not in my office at school), and the piano is in here. The G3 is also in here, and was facing south. It is now facing east, which is an improvement, and I rearranged some of the junk-containing boxes that we just can�t seem to get rid of.
There was a mini-concert at 1 p.m. given by the artist-in-residence and the students who worked with him during the past week. That was fun. After we got home again, Hubby went back out to a classical guitar concert given by the guitar prof at the U de S, but I decided to stay home and get on with the copying. After one page my eyes were closing of their own accord, so I lay down, did not nap, made supper when the concert goer returned, and spent a very long time on the phone with my mom. I�ll try to get a page or two more copied before bedtime. At least the manuscript pile is getting thinner.
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