I’m Back East in my hometown, not for vacation. My mother fell last month and landed in the hospital. She didn’t break anything, but she had ceased taking her medications. She was in rehab for a couple of weeks. She will now be in assisted living, if not skilled nursing, for the duration. I flew home to make sure she was getting good care. I also needed to help my sister clear out Mom’s apartment.
Mom is in a good facility. It used to be the Catholic high school in Oswego, but has been repurposed for adult day care, rehab, and skilled nursing. A newer facility on the grounds offers assisted living. Mom looks healthy, and she’s just as ornery as ever. The staff is attentive. The wound care nurse came in while I was there yesterday to check for spots that could become bedsores. Her temporary roommate is someone she knows from my hometown.
The bigger challenge is cleaning out the apartment. In her old age, Mom’s become a bit of a pack rat. She’s kept clothes that fit when she was 60 pounds heavier. She had bags and jars full of coins squirreled around the apartment. The food had already been disposed of by the time I arrived, mercifully. My sister and I tackled the kitchen first. Last year I threw out and organized a whole bunch of plastic containers when I was here. In the interim, she acquired more of them and/or the suckers started breeding. This afternoon we took two SUV-loads of pots, pans, utensils, and the aforementioned plastic storage containers to the Salvation Army. Tomorrow we commence tackling clothes.
While it’s never easy to sift through and cull stuff accumulated over a lifetime, I’m grateful that I didn’t have to do this alone. My sister downsized from a house to a granny flat three years ago, and she has the take no prisoners attitude required for this chore. However, she did take Mom’s cookie jars for her collection. I will send a few of Mom’s cookbooks (ONLY A FEW, JULIAN!) home to Casa Sammamish. The furniture in the apartment will go to my nephew and his wife, who are in the process of buying a larger house. My niece may take a few other things. I think things are as under control as they can be under the circumstances.
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