All is Well

Mother's Day lunch with Blanche was excellent! As we drove up Route 6 headed for the Charcoal Chef, we passed one or two horse farms. Blanche was chattering away and telling us how she drives up this way two or three times a week and pulls over to the side of the road to watch the horses. Excellent! I told her that's a great way to break up her day and she agreed wholeheartedly. She was also telling us how much she enjoys "working" at KS. If that's what it takes for her to be okay with living there, then so be it.

Once again, she was showered, her hair was nice, although it needs to be cut. Tracy is working on that. Apparently, she needs to ask KS to set up an appointment the next time they are offering that service.

Cleo is doing fine. She seems quite happy and not at all upset that she has to live in a memory care facility! Her life is pretty basic - she stays in Blanche's room and she eats, sleeps, pees and poops! Not bad. Tracy and I are responsible for her care. So once a week, we change the litter and make sure her feeder is full. Blanche is good about keeping water in the bowl. However, she still tends to try to give the cat little "treats" such as crackers, hand cream, etc. But we try to keep an eye on that. Since she can't have food in her room, it makes it easier to manage.

Last Sunday we took Blanche to the Heritage Village book sale. I went off and did my own thing, but Tracy told me later that her mom absolutely could not focus. She just kept reading all the book titles and never really seemed to find anything she was interested in. Yet, she used to be an avid reader. Tracy picked out a book for her and she had another one for her because we had been to the sale the day before. I highly doubt she is able to read a book anymore, but that's okay.

When we went back to Blanche's room, what a treasure trove of things we found! Apparently, Blanche has been collecting plastic hair clips. We don't know who they belong to, but there were at least a half dozen on her dresser. Isn't that weird? Also on her dresser was a checkbook belonging to someone else. Tracy immediately brought that to an aide and it turned out that it belonged to Blanche's friend, Celia. Why her family would allow her to have a checkbook in the memory care facility is beyond me, but the aide gave it right to Celia.

We're having a Memorial Day picnic on Monday and we've decided that Blanche cannot join us. We think it would be a challenge to keep her out of her old apartment and we don't want her to think she's coming home. So like on Easter when we brought her with us to my brother's house, we'll take her to picnics that are not at our house. I think Fourth of July is at my cousin's, so we'll bring her there with us.

That's about it for now...