Monday, April 23, 2007

Cameo: Arthur Wallace


By the time I met him, Arthur Wallace had no teeth, continually chewed on a cigar and kept his money in a velvet Crown Royal pouch. He was living at the Duplex Nursing Home in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Though neither of us knew it, he was in the last year of his life.

- David Greenberger, from I ain't Coe

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Went to see Mom again

Since she was seeing elephants Tues. I went to the house and brought up 2 stuffed elephants she had and layed them on her bed. Today she is In an "I am not getting up" mode. They couldn't get her up to go to breakfast I was going to go to lunch with her and help her eat again but she was still sound asleep at 11:30 when I was there so I left.

My Mom

I went to see my mother Tues. She will be 95 July 13. She is in hospice care now in the nursing home. She has gotten into a hallucinatory state. Tues I took her outside to sit in the warm sun and she kept seeing cockroaches all over. Told me they keep falling all apart and that they can do it to themself noone does it to them and when they make themself fall apart like that it makes that animal mad so he eats them all. Then she kept reaching in the air and grabbing things. Finally told me Oh look a little elephant I love my little elephant. (she does love elephants and has a large collection of ceramic and marble carved elephants at home)

Wed. the nursing home called and told me they were going to give Mom an adovan (anti-psychotic) as she was really delirious and very agitated and was in my daughter-in-laws office. (Both my son and his wife work in the home) So I went up to see what was going on. Mom said she was mad at me vecause I had been writing bad checks all over town. (she now has an obsession with her check book) I assured her that I had not written any bad checks, then she kind of giggled and said Oh I know you haven't.

It was lunch time so I decided to take her to the dining room and help her eat. I took her in at 11:30 and she didn't get any food til 12:15. But it was unreal as that whole 45 min. we waited she ate imaginary food. The pantomime was so good you would swear she was really eating. At first she picked something up in her hand and actually "bit" it off and chewed and chewed then kept licking whatever she thought she was eating off her fingers. Then she picked up a fork and she ate and ate and ate. Chewed like she really had something in her mouth swallowed it and even picked some food out of her teeth. It was so bizarre and so heartbreaking to see my mother behaving like this. Finally her food came and a CNA came over to help me and Mom was still "feeding" herself so every time she would open her mouth to eat her imaginary food as she was bringing her hand to her mouth the CNA would hurry up and put a spoonful of soup in Moms mouth. In doing so she managed to get a half bowl of chicken noodle soup into mom then they brought her some pureed peaches and she got that all down mom. By this time the adovan was kicking in and mom was falling alseep so the CNA took her back to her room and put her to bed.
It was a horrible thing to see my Mom like this and I don't think I will ever eat another meal that I don't see my mom eating like that when there was nothing there.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Friends to the End

Date unknown, this old photo-booth shot is of Betty Clinton and Harriet Fitzpatrick, best friends. Betty was a close neighbor, just north of Harriet's parents' home. They went to school together, and also flirted with Gordon Short together. But when Gordon asked Betty out first, she declined, because she knew how Harriet felt about Gordon. Now THAT'S a real friend...

Ironically, even to this day, Betty and Harriet are neighbors. Harriet lives at Eventide in Moorhead, and Betty still lives in her home, only a few blocks away...