Settling In

The last two days have been largely spent helping my mother get a little more settled in at her new lodge.

Ev came and picked me up yesterday a.m. and drove me out to the lodge where we unpacked and organized more of Mom's things. Mom and I met with the management about some of the financial arrangements for her stay. Ev took Mom back up to her floor for lunch, while I checked out the shops downstairs and got the phone number for the beauty salon. I arranged to have her hair done for Wednesday of next week, which will make her feel a whole lot better. Once I joined them upstairs, Ev and I sat with Mom while she ate her lunch, I smiled at Mom's reaction after she finished her soup and the next course came. It has been very predictable for many years that when ordering food she will say 'not too much' and when food is placed before her in a restaurant she will roll her eyes and say 'that's too much'. Not yesterday. When her plate of fish sticks and 'tater tots' was placed in front of her she blurted out 'That's it?' ;)

Ev and I went out for a wonderful lunch following our visit with Mom, it was so enjoyable to just sit and visit and feel good enough to do so after the previous week. We did draw a little attention from the other diners when we burst into spontaneous laughter and then had some trouble stopping. Ev had been telling me about a time that she and her family had gone to see 'The Passion Play' in Drumheller. It had been a very wet and cloudy day. In the play Jesus was kneeling praying in the Garden of Gethsemane when the clouds in the sky broke and a ray of sunlight came down right on the actor playing Jesus. Just then a rooster crowed. She said the whole crowd gasped. My response was that you can't orchestrate something like that, like 'cue sunshine' (pointing to the sky) and 'cue rooster' (pointing to the left of me). We both looked to the left of me just then and noticed that the wallpaper border there was covered in roosters. Maybe we were tired, but it struck us as quite funny.

Today, Rod and I went shopping and bought a chest of drawers that would work in Mom's room. He put it together while I got a few more of her things ready to take out to her. With perfect timing once again, Caleb arrived, visited with us for a bit, shopped in 'Grandma Laura's' store for a suitable present for a two year old's birthday celebration this evening and helped move Mom's things to Rod's truck. He offered to go with us to the lodge, we gladly took him up on the offer. Today's items are in place in Mom's room now, it is looking quite nice and more like her room all the time. After a quick visit it was back to the city and time for a rest for me.

Hard to believe that I can still let myself get worried at times about how things are going to work out when I look back on weeks and days like the last few and how everything has fallen so beautifully into place.Oh me of little faith ;)

I'll work on that.

Take care, everyone.