Enjoying apple juice "neat" when I arrived

Mama was in fine form yesterday! Likely it helped that she was sitting with her physical therapist “Jan” when I arrived. Jan explained that Mama routinely struggles to stay on task while having her meals so she had just finished sitting with and helping Mama while she ate lunch. They were enjoying apple juice “neat” when I arrived, and with the glasses looking just like shot glasses, my comment was, “A bit early for whiskey, don’t you think?” They both laughed, even Mama!

Jan appears to be a dedicated therapist and care giver and seems to genuinely like Mama. That seems a trend in all the facilities in which Mama has lived. Not that she is not without her gruff and bluff at times. Yesterday she blessed us, well me anyway, with a good old 2-Daddy “That’s bullshit!” 🙂

I sat with Mama a good while after Jan left us and kept her laughing. You all know I am a story teller at heart and, as I mentioned before, she is the perfect audience with which to hone my craft as she gives a fresh response with each telling as though she is hearing the story for the first time! While I have a treasure trove of stories I might relate to her, I have a handful I love telling for purely selfish reasons. They make me cry too!

Yesterday I told her I could tell her a story that might make her cry. While at first covering her eyes like a little girl, she peeked between her fingers and said, “That’s okay, I like to cry.” Like mother, like son in this case!

Because my visit started with the therapist present, my initial context for engagement was as myself, her son Wint. The three of us reviewed what Jan and Mama had been talking about and Mama, though at first declared she had “a bunch” of children, she followed that up with “Five”! So I stayed “in character” for the remaining of our visit and Mama did fine. She may not k now my name, but it sure seems like she knows me, at least some of the time.

I would like to share with you something that happened on the morning after I spent the night with Mama at the hospital. As I was leaving I passed the RN who had been on shift through the previous night, we had become well acquainted, and I stopped to pass on some information from Jan (our Jan) who had arrived to spend time with Mama. While talking with her I became emotional. Imagine that! 🙂 Probably it was that I was simply hung over forma good night’s rest on the hospital sofa. Anyway … later in the day the following sprang from my keyboard …

I Cried Today

Overwhelmed by love I cried today,

With a young woman who is not my wife,

Green scrubs and the afflicted fill her day,

Guiding succor to my mother and sustaining her life.

So I cried and thereby blessed,

A young woman’s day was briefly brightened,

It was not by intent, I could not have guessed,

The load she carried was somewhat lightened.

Perfect aim is not required,

To hit the mark when it really matters,

Sight life’s bullseye even if you’re tired,