Bringing Mom Home

Does Your Mom Remember You?

Mom is coming through the front door with her arms full of boxes of fat red strawberries. The children are jubilant. “They had a sale at Albertsons,” Mom explains.

When we come from New Jersey, she likes to get us all our favorite foods. She also hates to…

Miss Congeniality

Mom and I are watching “Snowmen” while I feed her dinner. “Get over here,” she demands, as I stand by the bed with my plate of food. “Let me see that dish.”

I hold the dish up for her to see. She reaches for it, and I pull it away.

Wasting

This week will mark fifteen months since we all moved in together and brought Mom home. It’s been almost five months since I have posted anything. That’s because pretty much nothing different has happened.

When we first began, there was stuff to move and information to be acquired. There…

Feeding Mom

The caregiver arrives late-ish on Saturday, so Claire and I tag team the morning routine. I see Claire coming out of Mom’s room and ask, “Should I make Mom breakfast?”

Well, I gave her a banana and she’s just holding it.”

Hospice Recert

When Colleen came from hospice yesterday to check on Mom for recertification, I was a little worried. Mom’s vitals, as reported weekly by the case nurse, have been looking pretty good to me. What if Mom becomes ineligible for hospice care?

A Good Life

I Can’t Give Mom a Good Life, But I can Bring Chocolate

Lately I’ve been remembering how much Mom enjoys Dove dark chocolates. She used to ask for them, and then she just seemed to forget. For a while I was glad because chocolate isn’t a healthy food. Lately, though, I have been…

A Slice of Alzheimer’s Pie

Stage 7, I think

I am taking a break from writing essays to sit with Mom. I am enjoying “So I Married An Axe Murderer,” a Mike Myers movie friends have referenced repeatedly over the years. Mom used to get agitated when we watched anything that had…

“How’s Your Mom?””

I am on the phone with an old friend from NJ, who asks, “How’s your mom?”

I don’t know what to tell her. On the one hand, she may want the truth. On the other hand, she is probably just being polite. Maybe she’s really asking, “how are you with this whole thing?”

Is Getting Better Than Giving?

An Old Homeless Lady and My Old Bedbound Mom Give Me Pause.

I am in Chicago, waiting for my grandson to be born. While Beulah labors endlessly, I stroll about the Chicago Medical District. Yes, that’s what it’s called. They have signs up, so you know…