Two Late Afternoons With Grandma

Yesterday (Thursday): I brought over some Applesauce Cinnamon Bread I'd made with Grandma and Grandpa's bread machine (I'm borrowing the machine long term). Grandpa was there with Grandma. Both were delighted with the bread. Grandma could talk and she wanted jam as well as butter on the bread. We couldn't find jam; the closest thing was honey mustard sauce. She took that.

I left some pieces with them. Here's the recipe, as I made it:

• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (this, with the all-purpose flour, substituted for bread flour)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter (I softened it)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

I put it in on the medium setting. I also shared the bread with my roommate and my brother-in-law; looks like it's a hit!

Grandpa said they'd been participating in the Nielsen ratings system for TV! They've been keeping a TV diary for the past like 2 weeks. They mostly watch just news and the Olympics (and Grandpa's sick of the Olympics). They won't continue with it.

Grandma was feeling a bit anxious but Grandpa was keeping her calm. She seemed pretty good.

Today (Wednesday): I came over with more baked goods: muffins and chocolate chip cookies! I left both in the oven too long, so they weren't as good as the bread. I was with her for about 3 hours and Grandma could hardly say a word. She shared chocolate with me though and had 1.5 pieces herself, as well as tried some of a muffin and cookie. She couldn't swallow well though. During the last hour I read an essay for homework on my laptop while playing my Shirley Temple album. (I gave Grandma the choice of classical or Shirley Temple, and of course she picked Shirley!) She slowly started working her way through her dinner. I left just when she was getting her meds; hopefully she had a better night than afternoon.

Bonus: here's a sleeping-Grandma picture I took on an aborted visit on February 1st.

Update: Out of the Hospital and Better!

I visited Grandma on Tuesday night. She's back at the care home! She passed the swallow specialist's tests ("With flying colors?" "No.") and was released. She can eat and drink again! When I arrived at the home, Elizabeth, Claire (a friend of Elizabeth's), and Grandpa were there. Grandma seemed upbeat, peaceful, satisfied, and comfortable. She couldn't speak loudly at all - I had to mute the TV and lean in close to understand her - but apparently she had talked a bit with Cathy earlier on the phone about parenting, and she had her triple combination open and was reading (in Alma, I think). She said she has hope of living a "normal life" now; in the hospital, on the feeding tube, she was afraid she'd never function again. (This may be a misquote, but it's the impression I got.) Her dinner tray was still there. She'd cleaned it up pretty well!

Grandma in Hospital

I have a lot on my plate right now, so I just made a recording of me talking about what I know and what my experiences were with Grandma this weekend. She's currently in the hospital. It's 25 minutes long. Please don't hate me for taking a calculated risk with my cold; I tried to be really careful.

Listen:


Download Page: Here

October 25 2013

On this day, I came after a class lecture focused on the medicinal properties of chocolate, complete with about 10 varieties of chocolate to sample! I arrived in a very good mood and told her everything I had learned.

As I recall, I think she was a bit down when I came but my chattering cheered her up. She probably had some chocolate too. I probably gave her a foot massage with an essential oil or two. I know I've done so a couple of times in the past two months; I'm just not sure precisely which visits. She enjoys them.

You can see that it was pretty dark in her room. I opened the shutters near the end of my visit, so the room was brighter. :) I left sooner than she expected but she said she was glad to see me. :) She loves visitors.

October 4 2013

Another catch-up post. I wrote most/all of this one while I was with her. It just took a month to add the Bingo part and the pictures.

Friday, October 4 1:33pm

When Grandma talked an hour ago about mending the quilt which was sitting on the trash can, I thought she was talking nonsense. But when I picked up the quilt, I discovered threaded needles!

Isn't it wonderful that she's up to her old tricks!

Right now, I'm trying out a brand new (bargain) camp chair, and Grandma is sitting comfortably in a folding chair working on the quilt. We are listening to piano music (link: Piano Portraits). The oxygen machine is softly grinding and puffing across the room. The spool of light blue thread is on the TV table next to her, and she just had me get "one more piece of chocolate." (We had Creamies together earlier.)

The earlier Creamie.

The new camp chair! It's quite comfortable.

Let me tell you about what happened before this point. Yesterday something very special arrived in the mail.

Let me go back further. Grandma couldn't go to the Weber this year. I've been meaning to make a photo book of her family for ages  but haven't gotten all the way through it. A few months ago, I found a Groupon deal for MyPublisher photo books, and snagged 3 of them. With MyPublisher, you write the book and put photos in, and then the company prints the book and sends it to you. I finished a book with Weber pictures a couple of weeks ago and had them sent to Elizabeth's house; so, today I picked them up.

I couldn't wait until her birthday to give it to her! When I walked into the care home, Grandpa was just on his way out. We opened one of the boxes. He *loved* it! He thought it was so neat. Man, it was so exciting. Then I went into Grandma's room. The lights were off, but she stirred and I walked in. Then I got the book out and we looked at it together.

She *loved* it! And the book is dedicated to her, which she really liked. She said things like "You're the first one to write a book for me!" and "I could look at these for hours." Well, Grandma - you can, because it is yours.

The book I gave her is has a cloth green cover; she liked it better than the black cover. Visit her to look at it! I'll send one up to the Weber Cabin as well. (How can I see/get one of these books, you ask? Talk to me. It's a bit pricey but the company has good sales occasionally.)

Well, back with Grandma - one of the aides told us that a Bingo game was going on. She decided to go, and wanted to take the quilt with her! So we played together, and she tried to continue mending, and I think we won/placed twice. There were like 6 other players there, so this wasn't half bad. Below are pictures.

September 18 2013

I'm on another catch-up blitz! Below was written shortly after the visit. I can't find any pictures for this one.

Visit: around 2 pm

Grandma was engrossed in reading the paper when I came in, and she continued to enjoy it during our time together. (I read Moby Dick for class, so we were both happy.) I had Oreos with me since a store had had them on sale, 2 packages for $3. She thought that was a great bargain. She enjoyed one Oreo and declined a second, since it wasn't very healthy and she hadn't eaten that much today. She read that Utah beat BYU in a football game and expressed disappointment: "I want BYU to win." She also tsked about a BYU player being suspended for violating the Honor Code.

Grandpa came as I was leaving. He was glad to see me and joked about hiding my keys to keep me there longer. :/

Wednesday September 18, + Sunday

Grandma was engrossed in reading the paper when I came in, and she continued to enjoy it during our time together. (I read Moby Dick for class, so we were both happy.) I had Oreos since a store had had them on sale, 2 packages for $3; she thought that was a great bargain. She enjoyed one Oreo and declined a second, since it wasn't very healthy and she hadn't eaten that much today. She read that Utah beat BYU and expressed disappointment: "I want BYU to win." She also tsked about a BYU player being suspended for violating the Honor Code.

Grandpa came as I was leaving. He was glad to see me and joked about hiding my keys to keep me there longer!

The funeral was on Friday. Grandma wanted to go but didn't feel well enough on the day of. We talked about it on Sunday dinner, and watched a lovely video with photos from his life. It was touching, and Grandma asked to not watch it twice that night.