Grandma Doris, again
Mar. 2nd, 2011 11:08 pmI was going to call my mom this afternoon, but she ended up calling me first. She is in Iowa with Grandma Doris, who is mostly resting in (we hope) comfort, and is intermittently lucid, at least to the level of lucidity her dementia has left her.
Mom handed over her cell phone so I got to talk to Grandma Doris for a few minutes. I wasn't sure if she knew she was dying -- her short term memory is pretty hopeless -- so I didn't say anything about hospitals or death, because how do you broach a topic like that? Instead I was reduced to inanity, stuff like, "Today is very sunny where I live, and it's shining on the snow left over from a storm last weekend. I've always thought sunshine on snow is a very cheerful thing," and so on. Useless.
But I did tell her I love her. She sent me two kisses over the phone, and I told her I was sending her a big hug. That's something.
Her speech is thick and slurred -- I'm not sure if that's a side effect of the morphine or if there's some other cause -- but intelligible if you're paying careful attention. And her responses were relevant to what I said, insofar as I was saying anything worth replying to.
...
I'll try to call Mom again on my lunch break tomorrow.
Mom handed over her cell phone so I got to talk to Grandma Doris for a few minutes. I wasn't sure if she knew she was dying -- her short term memory is pretty hopeless -- so I didn't say anything about hospitals or death, because how do you broach a topic like that? Instead I was reduced to inanity, stuff like, "Today is very sunny where I live, and it's shining on the snow left over from a storm last weekend. I've always thought sunshine on snow is a very cheerful thing," and so on. Useless.
But I did tell her I love her. She sent me two kisses over the phone, and I told her I was sending her a big hug. That's something.
Her speech is thick and slurred -- I'm not sure if that's a side effect of the morphine or if there's some other cause -- but intelligible if you're paying careful attention. And her responses were relevant to what I said, insofar as I was saying anything worth replying to.
...
I'll try to call Mom again on my lunch break tomorrow.