Midgie at Ashton Gables Feb. 16, 2006

Midgie at Ashton Gables February 16, 2006

Dear Friends and Family, Thursday pm

Well, how do I keep my letters or posts interesting when I am writing about the same subject everyday or two. I will preface this letter saying “I am under the influence of the largest cup of coffee, I have ever seen!”. This letter is being written from Barnes and Nobles Coffee Shop at Patton Creek in Hoover. I visited mom today and this is the plum for my being a good son…?

I guess I will make this a kind of travelogue to keep “boring” out of mine and especially your vocabulary. I begin with calling Bobbie this morning at 8:15, on my drive to a doctor appointment at Medical Center East next to Trussville, Alabama. You almost need a passport and visa to go this far out of one town to a hospital for just a checkup. But I needed to make another doctor happy, talk to aunt Barbara on the way, and get my day going.

My talk with Bobbie was in essence, that mom was doing fine and Bobbie had a comforter of Laurie’s she was going to try to take to mom tomorrow. All will be forgiven if this does not happen as life does not follow a script! We had a good talk and it sure made my drive shorter, or seemed to.

Dr. Watterson was pleased with me, and most of all we had prayer together before I left. Dr. Swillie yesterday did the same as we each talked about our faith, our lives and how He guided and blessed each of us each and every day. It definitely helped me to get my day off to a good start. We had talked Sunday of our responsibility as Christians, to witness for Him and make our lives a tribute to Him in all we do. Two nice young men obviously have Christ in their life and by luck of the draw, they are also my doctors.

I had called the nursing station earlier and it looked like mom was off to a good start. I had some business calls on my company radio and bingo, my plans for the day went into the hopper and out came new ones. I made a side trip to my warehouse and then lunch with a buyer to take a chunk out of the middle of my day.

I got to the bank and to Ashton Gables about 12:30 pm. They had just finished lunch and mom was in her room watching her TV. She was dressed, had on her makeup, lipstick, earrings, and a scarf. The RA kidded me later as she will not leave her room with all of the above.

I got mom’s stuff together and her newest picture album Karen did for her and we walked to the living room. We settled in on the sofa and I let her go through the album naming as many people as she could and helping her with the rest. We enjoyed this together and soon one of the directors came with show and tell cards where you have to complete the sentence. Some are good at this but mom can’t or won’t? We did this for a while and some like me, told stories, humorous stories that some thought was funny. Did I have a captured audience? Yes! But it was fun, or funny, until Fiona came and robbed half the group with a cooking class in the other section. Pee you, Fie, for breaking up our party!
Kidding! I went back to the other section after getting mom her pm Boost and sure enough Fiona had almost all the residents back there cooking cookies! She promised to bring some of us up front that chose not to come to school but when I left at 3:30pm, there were NO COOKIES! Just wait and see who helps her with next exercise and needs some input from the cheap seats. No deal, Lucille! You rob me once, my fault! You look for help next, and Jeff plays dumb! Kidding all, the activities director is great with mom, and who is left to kid!

All and all it was a fun afternoon. I have tried to learn the names of one or two more residents each time and today it was Lucy Smart and Ms. Kitty! Lucy is a sleeper of sorts. She has something that has really affected her speech but if you can give her the gift of attention and time, she can get the words and ideas across. I learned today that she worked for 30 years, 30 hard years at Carraway Hospital in North Birmingham. I then found she knew several doctors of my acquaintance, which was nice. I soon told mom bye with a promise to come back tomorrow. I left her with 3 or 4 others visiting in the living room.

It is time to close as my coffee cup is just about empty. I have the Wall Street Journal in my lap and I need to find out how my money is doing? Don’t I wish! Mom news good! The writer, well, the jury is still out! News at 11:00/Son Jeff