First Week in the New Place

Friday May 10th:

I visited Grandma in her new place for the first time! It was around 11 AM. She was awake and alert. I had a new dress just purchased from a local thrift store and said I'd model it for her. While I was changing, two of her friends, Bernice (Berenice?) and her daughter Zina, came in for a few minutes! They brought towel bibs they'd made for Grandma, since her clothes have a lot of food stains. They are brightly colored, have a loop to put over her head, and have hand-sewn pockets at the bottom to catch crumbs! That was a very thoughtful and practical gift. :) After her visitors left, lunch arrived, and then the aide brought food for me! I never took advantage of this service in the old home, but was very appreciative of it that day.

This evening, my dad was in town and after doing things with my older sibs and me, he and I went to visit Grandma. She'd slept between this visit and my visit of the morning, and was doing well yet. The last time my dad visited a couple of months ago, she was in a bad place and couldn't really talk; this night was a much, much better night for her. Elizabeth was also there. He gave her a card from my mother, with pictures of Grandma and some family members. We put them on the wall right then, and discussed when and where the pictures were taken. Dad, Elizabeth, and Grandma also discussed something that needed to be done, and all three agreed to work together to accomplish the goal. Eventually my younger sister and her friend arrived, so with the five of us in her room it was a party! This place is such an improvement; there was enough space for us all.

Picture time! Here is Grandma's room. I took these the next day, after Elizabeth and I made a few improvements. The folding chairs are stacked against the wall; there are nice tablecloths on two of the tables; we moved the table with the mini fridge and microwave to as different wall to better utilize space. I also put together my parents' main Mother's Day present to Grandma - an over-the-bed rolling table.

That's her closet on the left. She has at least 5 times more storage space in there than at the previous place!


Saturday May 11th:
(This is mostly copied from my journal.)

Then [around 2 in the afternoon] I went over to Grandma, with my laptop and other things, ready to put together her Mother’s Day present from my family (a rolling table that fits over her bed). However, when I peeked into her room, she was asleep! Well. What should I do now? I thought. I didn't want to go back home. I ended up playing around on the home’s [electric] piano a bit! No one was watching the TV [in the main common room, which the piano is also in] and I got sucked into it. Maybe I could keep a piano book or two with Grandma? 

Elizabeth arrived after like 10 minutes, and we went to look at Grandma again. She was just waking up, so in we went! I settled right down to assembling the table thing. An aide let me borrow a heftier screwdriver of the home’s.

Grandma went to dinner in the main dining room with Elizabeth. They ate with Grandma's longtime friends _____ and Iona – a married couple, living at the home, who also knew my paternal grandmother. He’s a chocoholic and she has chocolate, gluten and lactose intolerances. I guess he’s hard of hearing, too; he said like nothing but she was very chatty. 

Here's a picture of the four of them!

After dinner, while Aunt Elizabeth was making Grandma’s bed, I got my laptop out and brought up the Puzzletouch app for Grandma. She’s struggled with puzzles lately but still really likes them. I first took a picture of us [with the laptop camera] and made it into a 6-piece puzzle; she had a hard time with it. Then I went to a picture of a butterfly. She did better with that. And she did a picture of a daisy all on her own! The app cheers/claps when you’re done. I've found it annoying for me, but when Grandma finished a puzzle I wanted to cheer too! And I think she must've liked it. J I’ll definitely bring my comp more often. I hope Grandma, as she gets used to this place, can improve cognitively and get better at the puzzles, moving up to more pieces.

She was very childlike today: very meek and cute.

Aunt Elizabeth and I did a little rearranging of Grandma’s room! I don’t know yet what Grandpa thinks of it; he was in Salt Lake all afternoon.

Sunday May 12th: Mother's Day

When I arrived around 3 PM, Grandma was asleep. The aide said she'd been in and out of it all day. I arrived a few minutes after Grandpa left. I went and played the piano a little more, then returned and just quietly watched the TV (which was going) while organizing some things on my laptop. I sat against the wall on the ground and made myself comfortable with one of her quilts and a big pillow I'd brought.

After a bit, I left to make a phone call. Grandma was waking up when I walked back in at 5. The pictures on the wall immediately drew her eyes; it was cute. She asked what time it was; I said 5. "Why are you here so early?" she asked. Whoops. I told her it was in the afternoon, and turned the lights on. :)

She was hungry! I got her a snack and told her there would be dinner at Elizabeth's in less than an hour, and we should get ready. She used the bathroom by herself. An aide came in with her dinner and expressed preference that we give notice when Grandma would eat out. There was ice cream on the dinner tray, and Grandma pounced on it! The aides were trying to help her dress, but she was more interested in the ice cream. Grandpa came and eventually we were on our way to Elizabeth's.

When she came in, Elizabeth was on the phone with her grandson Jeremy, and gave the phone to Grandma. Grandma talked in a louder voice than I've heard from her in days! That was fantastic. She slowly spiraled downward from there until we took her home for her usual meds. But in between she had dinner and we were able (after a lot of finagling) to arrange a video chat with two of her children (with all three parties - David, my mother, and Grandma) being able to hear and see each other. She didn't say much, but did do the parade wave to her kids at the end. That's my grandma!