Full credit

Mom with her walker,
surveying Julie's garden in early August.

It has all happened so fast, this decline. She fell a third time last night, after the ambulance had brought her back to the elderly housing place. She has been moved to the skilled nursing unit -- nurses always present -- and in trying to get out of a wheelchair, she fell down on her knees. No injury, but what is skilled care about except for preventing falls like this? Any transition from bed to wheelchair to table or whatever MUST BE ASSISTED. 

Her new room is small, I would say less than half the size of her room upstairs. It's got a single bed, not the queen she had before, a small closet, a dresser, a TV, and a bathroom. We are slowly moving clothes, toiletries and everything she needs down from the assisted living room. They're holding it for her for now, but she may not move back. 

She has lived through a lot of upheaval in the last year and a half -- moving to a new place in a new city, moving from independent living to assisted living, breaking her hip, spending days in the hospital, and now moving to a whole new room on a whole new floor. All of this, of course, after my dad died, after her heart surgery, after falling and breaking her elbow, after breaking her kneecap, and after Parkinson's set in. I don't know that I could have lived through any of that without falling into despair, but she has handled it with a kind of grace and sense of acceptance that is remarkable. I give her full credit. 

We've made visits daily since this happened, Julie making as many as I have. The church sent flowers Sunday, and she's had a couple of visits from the pastors. She naps often and thinks that anything that happened before the most recent nap happened yesterday, which I've stopped trying to talk her out of. 

I talked to a nurse yesterday, and will meet with a social worker maybe this week, to plan ahead in case there are decisions to be made that she may not be able to make at some point in the future. It was sobering.

I didn't think this would be this hard.