Easter 2017

We had a lovely day for Easter this year.

Everybody got an Easter basket. Dad got a sweet smelling Hyacinth plant for his new room.

We even managed to Skype with Katie and Avi on my phone when we were visiting at the Care Center which was ... really, really good.

We also had plenty to eat.

And once again, lots to be thankful for when you stop and think about it.

Beverly

Beverly passed away last night. She'd been battling Scleroderma for as long as I'd known her, but things just seemed to go downhill really fast recently. She'd been in the hospital and then they moved her to a care center in Minneapolis for comfort care. Her family thought that maybe she had a couple of weeks left, but you never really know about these things.

After supper, I started to feel desperate inside, thinking that I needed to see her. Bruce said he'd go with me, and once we started to drive, it began to snow and get icy on the roads. What a journey it was to get there!

She recognized me, gave me a hug, and said she was comfortable when I asked her.

I brought her a bag of Lays potato chips even though I knew she probably couldn't eat them. She loved Lays potato chips.

Oh, Beverly.

She cared about our people at work. She loved her grandkids. She drank grape Koolaid in the morning and wore lots of funky shoes. She fought hard until the very end.

And I can't believe that we've lost another friend at work.

I'm pretty sure that she's with Vickey now.

April Weekend

It was a nice enough weekend to go up north and get the dock in the water. Our friend, Sven, drove up to help and he and Bruce put on their waders. I was mostly there to watch and fetch things, but I did get the job of letting out the rope that was attached to the dock and wrapped around the tree.

For some reason there were tons of pinecones down in the yard, maybe because it's been so windy. We went for a brisk early morning walk on Saturday, and saw several deer out, also a black squirrel. I loved hearing the calls of the Red Winged Blackbirds. But the most exciting part was seeing a porcupine waddling across the road. I've never seen one in person before, and he was cute. From a distance, of course.

The second part of the weekend was especially fun. We had Debbie and Bil over for supper Sunday night, the plan being that I was going to grill No Name Steaks. It started to rain, and then stopped in time for me to light the grill. But the grilling never happened as it wouldn't heat up, even after Bruce and Bil replaced the propane tank. I ended up broiling. No worries though, because No Name Steaks are tasty no matter what.

It was so good to have people over! Next up is Easter.

Dad Turns 88

Dad's 88th birthday was last week, and I was at a loss as to what to give him.

His need for belongings is small, his world is so small these days, too. I wanted to enhance his life somehow, but more and more I am having a harder time knowing how to do that. In the end, I decided to make another photo collage to hang on his wall. Dad loved to fish, he practically lived to fish, and I hoped that maybe this could bring back some very fond memories.

Anyway, a couple days before his birthday, we arrived to visit him and found that he was getting ill again. They had already done a chest X-ray and were waiting for results. Within the hour, they knew that he had another bout of pneumonia and started him on antibiotics. They took care of things before he got so ill that he would need to go to the hospital.

I've been a nurse for a very long time now, and I've seen good care and I've seen bad care. I am so grateful for what they do for him in this place. It might not be a big, fancy room, but they give him good care.

After a day and a half of antibiotics, Dad said that he'd "taken a turn for the good." He even let me take a picture of him holding the fishing collage.