October 2011

  David 

We were blessed to have a visit from David, our bestest son, in October.

He was here for about 8 days, and we had a wonderful

visit with him - possibly the best ever.

Both of these pictures are from my phone,

so they aren't very good quality when translated to Blogger

through my email. I took them when we were at Mom's visiting.

I love the generation pictures, Dave with his Grandpa Frank behind him,

and of course Dave and Grandma Lois.

She really enjoyed the his visits while he was here.

* * *

We have been rather busy the last few months, hence my giant lapse of blogging.

The end of July we had to move Mother from her two room suite in

assisted living to the skilled nursing wing.

She was quite ill at that time, and it took about a month for her

to get back to normal.

Now she is doing really well, compared to how she was on July 21st or so.

Thank the good Lord!

* * *

My dearest sister has been here twice since the end of July.

Mary came to help me get Mom's stuff out of her assisted living quarters.

It took us five solid days to get those 2 rooms cleared out!

Most of the stuff is either at the Etcetera Shop

in town, in a storage unit, or in my house.

Mary and I were so busy I didn't take any decent pictures of her.

After that week, Mary went back home to Alaska to work her

last week of work so she could retire!! YaY!! She has joined the  ranks!!

* * *

In September, Mary and Roy (also finally retired) came

back down to Kansas to visit for about 10 days.

We so enjoyed having them here.

They drove around the lower western 48 for about a month and a half.

We were visited during the early part of their tour.

They managed to hit 10 or 11 states on their drive.

Then they had had enough driving and sitting on rental car seats.

I again failed to get decent pictures. Good grief!!

* * *

David came to visit during October. He also talked his

second cousin Maia into

coming down to Newton for a couple day visit.

That was great fun - having both of them here.

Maia is alot of fun and interesting to have around

- enjoyed the two day visit

very much!

The time with David was very special for both Lee and I.

* * *

The end of October was Judgement House at church.

I helped with doing make up for scene 2 and

Lee was in the prayer room all 6 nights

of the presentation.

* * *

Last weekend I had the opportunity to speak at a retreat in Wichita.

This was the pilot retreat put on by the newly formed

Essentials for Married Women board.

The retreat was Friday night and Saturday til 4:30 p m.

It was a very nice time at the Vineyard Fellowship

and after I was done speaking Saturday afternoon,

I could relax and enjoy.

I enjoyed all of it, but this was a pilot for me too

since I had never thought of myself as a retreat speaker.

I was just one of 6 speakers, so it was less stress than

a whole weekend of speaking would be.

The ladies at the church were so gracious and

it was very well organized.

It all just showed me again how wonderful

our heavenly Father is in His care for us.

I would never have considered that I would ever

be a speaker anywhere - at my home church or anywhere else,

but God will use whoever is willing to say yes to Him!

Remember that if you say "No Lord," He is NOT your Lord!!!

* * *

My brother, Jon Wallace

My older brother, Jon, would have been 70 years old today.

He has been gone for 35 years, having died of a myocardial infarction when he was 35 years old.

Wow - I wonder what he would have been like had he lived to this age.

He had 3 little boys and a wife when he died, the youngest wasn't a year old yet.

Now he has 5 granddaughters and one grandson - his namesake!

There a lot of what ifs that come to mind when considering all he missed.

He was a promising orthopedic surgeon in the U S Navy when he died. He was on TDY and in Guam when the heart attack happened. They tried for about an hour to revive him.

What an awful thing to happen.

My heart still goes out to his widow and sons, even though they have all moved on and lived their lives. And for Mom who lost her first born so very young. Losing Jon was hard on the whole family.

Anyway - Happy Birthday to Jon. It is good to remember him today.

(I would put a picture in here if I could scan my pictures - but alas, I have no decent scanner! Bummer..

Trodding - Slowly

Mom was moved to skilled nursing at Presbyterian Manor a week ago Friday.

They allowed her to go back to a normal diet - no more pureed food. It has helped her eat a little more. If she eats half of anything on her plate, we figure she doing really well. Then later after another blood test, they took her off of thickened liquids so she would get more fluid. That has helped a lot. I don't think I could drink glop either!

My precious sister came down from Alaska a week ago Saturday. Boy, was I glad to see her!
Having her here to help clean out Mom's 2 room suite was a God-send! It took us the better part of 5 days, but we got 'er done.

This is just another part of the "Process," I know, but grieving each step is something I wasn't expecting. It's just that we seem to be losing a little more of our precious Mom with each step. And she is losing more and more freedom, because of a body that just doesn't want to work right.

When Mom first got to skilled, they were taking her to meals and everywhere in a wheel chair. Now, she is back to using her walker quite a bit. Glad for that in a way, but it is hard to watch her try to get her feet to move, and to see her body bowed down a bit more. I really hate what Parkinson's Disease is doing to her, but can't do a thing about it.

Mom has been really quiet the last week or so. This after being so very chatty when she was fighting off a UTI. That is probably why she was hallucinating, and was so very weak. It seemed like, on that Thursday, she was at the Gate! But the mansion must not be ready yet, because she is still here.

Having my sis here was a real high for Mom and me. She had to go back home last Saturday so she could work one last week, then retire. Finally. It will be so good to have her done with that period of her life. She has worked all her life, since about 14 years of age. She has been much more industrious that way than I ever was. I am so proud of her for putting in THIRTY years in that lab at the hospital where she lives. That is quite a feat, in my book. Way to go, sister mine!! 

The Vortex

Trying to sleep last night
My mind seemed a Vortex
At the top was all the things I was remembering from my evening with my sweet mother
She was hearing beautiful singing, and thought she saw a bunch of cousins
Many whom she hadn't seen for years.

She commented many times on how wonderful the singing was,
the harmonies were so beautiful.

She even sang a solo the night before in a dream -
and thought she did pretty well.
A friend from ID told her in the dream that she didn't know Mom was a soloist.

Mom wondered if she had done alright.
I assured her the I was sure she did because
it was one of her and Dad's favorite hymns:
"I Come to the Garden Alone."

I helped her get ready for bed and tucked her in -
told her about a thousand times that I love her.
Told her to stay in bed and enjoy the wonderful music.

In my years of learning some hospice things while I worked there,
I read the book, "Final Gifts" - compilation of many hospice nurses'
experiences with the dying, so I was ready for some of Mom's ramblings.

Wasn't quite ready for her to talk to the cousins she saw in the room, but
that's okay. Whatever they said to her, she would smile back.


At the bottom of the vortex, where I found myself, I was surrounded
like a whirlpool of sadness.
Tears come easier right now.

I'm probably waiting for a call today -
either she goes to skilled nursing at the home, or she has gone to
her mansion that is finally finished.
I really pray it is the latter.
She is so ready.
She has lived 97+ years, and now she realizes that she has gotten really old -
in the last couple weeks, she says.

I think the Parkinson's has done enough damage and she needs to be released.
She won't like getting weaker and weaker - her legs don't want to work very well
anymore, and she said her muscles were just flabby hanging there.
She is very thin - hates the new semi-pureed food and thickened liquids she has to take.
She has fallen a couple of times in the past month, and she sits and counts her bruises.

This is so sad. My mother is such a sweet gentle soul, I pray that the Lord will show
his compassionate mercy and take her home gently - and soon. For her sake mostly,
and I guess for mine, because this continual grieving for the mom that used to be is
really, really hard.

Backyard Visitor

I saw this guy sitting on our wire the other night.

After some research, I really think

we had an eagle back there.

A small one, but majestic -

So appropriate for the day after the Fourth!