Since Friday, we have been busily preparing for Granny to move in to our home. We cleaned out the extra room, that like any extra room, had accumulated all of our extra stuff that we just didn't take the time to deal with. It is a BIG room. It was a BIG job. If you could have only seen my nephew's eyes when he saw the pile of garbage bags that he and Ty had to carry out to the road. I said, "You should have seen what all I carried to the Lighthouse. He just smiled and silently nodded his head as he went to tackle the job.
With the help of Granny's furniture, some of ours, an electric fireplace, new curtains, lamps and a rug, the room is quite homey. We prepared the room so that Granny wouldn't have to leave it to be cared for. We hired men to build ramps up to the back door so that she could be wheeled in to the house. Another ramp was also installed up to my kitchen from her room so that maybe on good days Granny could eat with us at the table. I was a bit concerned that they weren't going to be finished in time. But at least the men would be there to help us get Granny in the house if we had trouble.
Well, Granny arrived to her room on Monday afternoon. She did it by walking down my front sidewalk and up my front steps!! HELLO, Granny!! I was a bit stunned. Aunt Cathy and Mom said that she was doing better but I didn't quite understand how much. Granny was bright and smiling and though she wouldn't make it too far without assistance from someone or a walker, she was walking. She is strong enough to stand on her own most of the time and she just needs help with direction because she doesn't remember what room to go to.
Dinah has taken to the caregiver role. She has to be with Granny if she isn't sleeping. If Granny gets up to go anywhere, Dinah pushes aside whatever she is doing very quickly so that she can walk in front of Granny's walker and say, "Come on, Granny, " in her sweetest voice. (Don't worry, I make sure she moves quickly enough that she doesn't trip Gran.) She also feels in that she has a right to all the privileges of the one being cared FOR. If I tuck blankets around Granny's lap, Dinah sits beside her and curls up, makes herself shiver and says, "I'm cold. I need a blanket too." She also needs to eat whatever Granny is having even if she has already had her meal.
So far things have been going fantastically well. I am so glad to see Granny feeling better. There are issues that I wasn't prepared for because I thought she would be too weak to go about the house, but God knew all that I and I can trust He will take care of them like He has all the rest.
Once when Eric inquired how our day had gone, he asked, "Do you think she knows who you are?' I told him that I really don't know for sure but I know that she seems happy and content. She hasn't asked to go home or when mom was going to come get her even one time. She doesn't call me by name. I don't ask her if she knows who I am or if she knows where she is, you see, because her memory has no rhyme or reason. But I feel she must know that we belong to each other in some way.
I have had to sleep with her because we don't have the hospital bed yet. Last night, when I thought she was asleep already, I went to climb in to bed with her. My back was to her as I was swinging my legs up and I hear her gruff voice (her voice box was damaged from a tracheostomy she had after a horrible car wreck a long time ago) say, "I didn't say you could sleep with me!" It kind of made me jump and I turned quickly toward her. She lay there grinning. I laughed too and asked politely and she said smiling, "Well, I guess so, just this once."She would have teased me like that a long time ago when as a girl I used to spend the night with her at her house and sleep in that same bed.
She is always very cold so I try to make sure the covers are about her shoulders when I wake in the night. She pulls most of the covers anyway so I shouldn't worry. :) I don't sleep much because I don't want her to try and get up without help. I must have been so tired that I drifted off a bit more than usual on Monday night. I woke once to find her pulling the blankets up around my chin. My granny was taking care of me.
Anna Becoming
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