We two...

19 Jan 09
After waiting a week to put the “Wake-up call” on Mom’s birthday behind me and to let my mind clear and my anxiety level abate, Kathy and I drove to Portland. The object was to spend enough time with my Mom to ascertain her level of reality awareness. What she remembers and for how long. I’m almost to the point of believing she’s putting me on. It’s all a ruse. For some strange reason she’s toying with us. As an example: I was talking about Josie’s address in Washougal and misspoke the street name and was corrected by – who else – Mom. If she has such a terrible memory, how is it that she knows and remembers the street name is “Cenoa” and not “Genoa”? And there were other little things. I was half expecting her to suddenly come out of character and say something like, “I just can’t keep this up any longer. It’s just too much work.” Her face going from that slightly “what–was-I-doing–again” expression to the more familiar “Mom-of-Old” expression. The one that could lovingly say, in an open and matter-of-fact way, “You’re not really ready to believe I’m buying that, are you?” However a FedEx package for Dennis was delivered while we were there and Mom signed for it. She didn’t seem to have much trouble with that until a few minutes later when she asked, “Did I just get something in the mail?” And Dennis must have taken pictures of the flowers we sent her, because every five minutes she would ask if Dennis had sent me the pictures yet.
“Not yet, Mom. Not yet.”