Being reminded that I am an only child.

Thursday, July 16

Being reminded that I am an only child. When decisions need to be made, it is up to me. When arrangements need to be made, it is up to me. When someone needs to be with Mom, it is up to me. Lonnie couldn’t come again tonight, and Mernie just called and said she can’t come tomorrow. I will do the “run out in the middle of the day and get things done” thing, hoping that the right nurses are on duty.

Sometimes I never see the nurse on duty, only the LPNs (the lower paid nurses, they tell me.) Some of those LPNs are so good, some just doing their job, and one sympathy LPN. Just like in the rest of the world. The night nurses rock! If Mom could push the call button right, I would be willing to leave her, but she still doesn’t have it down.

Realizing that things have changed forever. First hint? She doesn’t remember how to play solitaire and can’t use the electronic game that she played for hours on end. Asking how her kittie Boots is and if he misses her (Boots died in 1987).