Another Saturday Night

Another Saturday night. Church and IHOP, of course. Deena called today as she does every week. Mom takes the call and mostly connects to her. Today was no different. At dinner, Mom told me that Deenie called and said she was going to visit. Joe and I went along with it and Mom continued to ramble about Deena and having two girls who are all grown up now and have babies. When I asked how she knew Deena, Mom said that "she was always with us up there". She had no idea how old Deena was or what she looked like and "who knows what color her hair is." We had this conversation twice during the dinner there.

The day started out with me finding my pizzelle iron on the extra bed in her room and asking her why it was in her room. She said it was hers. I advised her that it was not hers but mine, and I had gotten it from my birthday a couple years ago and went to her room to find her iron. I found it in the back of the closet where I am sure she hid it so the short fat girl would not borrow it again. Later, Mom brought out her iron and put it on the kitchen counter saying that someone had given it to her and she didn't know how to use it, so if I wanted it, it was mine. Joe began trying to unravel all of it for her but after only a moment, saw that she was lost and left it alone.

I also want to add just a couple of excerpts from the journal this week:

Tuesday: "so far resisting all my efforts to keep her on a positive note. She's having a negative day. She went in Julie's room and got an attitude when I told her "we can't be in there." I locked the door. She made another attempt to go in. When she couldn't get in, she looked at me very disgusted, and said, "well, that woman will go in there. Julie used to live in there!" She is also agitated about her shoes. "Some men and women went in the room and took the ones she likes." I reminded her that she gave a lot of them away. To sum it all up, she has had an agitated hands on the hips attitude kind of day."

Friday: Mom was asking about Becky's granddaughter's baby - "maybe they are "twelves" she said, meaning twins. That took her back in time when her mom and dad had twins. Her dad was an alcoholic and mean to her . He made her take care of the babies. They had no car so she and her mom had to walk the babies to the doctor. That where they told them the baby boy was going to die. I sense some guilt on her part because she said "I was holding the little girl and dad he was an alcoholic, kept telling me to take car of the boy. I told him okay, dad, but I'm holding the little girl. I tried to take care of both of them."

Yes, Bonnie and Deena are planning to visit on Feb. 17. I called Bonnie to suggest it and it all came together. I know it will be a different kind of visit and Mom won't connect with the fact that she is our mother and she has three daughters. But she will most certainly enjoy the visit and Bonnie and Deena will have a few moments to share in and remember this part of her life.

Everyone is in bed but me and considering how "cranky" I was this morning, I guess I had better get there as well. Thanks for listening. Love you all.