It's my birthday this weekend - that's right, all weekend. I'm off out tonight - indeed I'm playing another gig, and I'll write about it I'm sure.
But one thing I felt I needed to write was a few more words about my grandma. I've just returned from seeing my mother last night, which meant I had the opportunity to see my grandma this morning.
I went into her house and knocked, as I always do, on the living room door before going through. As I opened it I saw her sat in her chair, motionless, silent, facing away and looking sort of crumpled. She was dozing. I said a necessarily loud hello - she's as deaf as I'm likely to become - and she looked up, startled, saying a couple of half-formed words and who...what's happening?. I braced myself for what I thought might be a difficult conversation trying to navigate with her through a rather vague, foggy mental state.
It couldn't have been much more different: apart from a couple of mild moments of forgetfulness, she was bright as a button, and appeared far more aware and together than I've seen her in months. It was such a nice, pleasant surprise. We chatted for a while, and it was gratifying to see some of her old spirit much more in evidence than has been the case for a while, though in a way this heightens the contrast with her quite fragile physical state.
It made my day.
What has helped, I'm sure, is that she is now getting daily visits from a social services agency to help her to manage. I think the sense of routine, and the stimulus provided by conversation with visitors who are there to help, has focused her mind to a noticeable degree. It's also meant my mother has been able to relinquish a lot of the responsibility of helping her, and so things are slightly better all round.
Wish me luck for tonight.
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18 comments:
You don't need luck your good at what your doing. Just have fun!
hugs
pxx
I'll second that, and send you luck regardless.
'...she was bright as a button..'
Just fine.
Give her a hug from me.
aw, glad.
was my birthday yesterday, and that's lasting all weekend too! do we share a birthday? get anything good?
Happy birth weekend...your poor mother, must have been a real struggle getting you out!
Hope it went well last night.
And happy birthday weekend honey. Like dj, I so feel for your poor mother.
Aries is my ideal natch, you'll be happy to know :)
x
I hope you had a good gig and an even better birthday so I expect you are recovering now
Hope you had a great night Trousers. Happy Birthday for today. The tale of your Gran bought a smile to my face. The elderly need stimulation as much as anyone else. In my work as a therapist I have recently had to work with three women over the age of 70. I dumped all my angst and steriotypical projections and worked in the same way I always do. Those three ladies are proving to be wonderful clients and are having a profound effect on me as a person. Way to go Gran - and hope your head is not too 'delicate' on this fine birthday morning xx
Already passed on via "other channels", but here's a public happy birthday.
Happy Birthday.
Haha, you haven't heard my stuff pixie! No, I appreciate your confidence in me, thank you - yes I did have fun, and I'll blog about it either later this evening or tomorrow x
And thanks to you too but why? x
merk, it was most definitely fine and I feel much better for having seen her so much brighter than in recent months.
b, no we don't share a birthday, mine's today, but it's pretty close all the same. Hope you've had as good a time as I have (same goes for pixie above). I got some whisky, a Krautrock dvd, some nice things from my mum, and the company of good friends as well as the opportunity to play the gig last night. Couldn't ask for more really! x
Hi dj, I was wondering whether I should make mention of something like that in the article - it does make it sound like it was an arduous experience doesn't it (fortunately for all concerned, I don't think it was) :-) x
It did cas, it was a most enjoyable night, thanks - as mentioned, I'll blog it soon. Ideal match? I like the sound of that!
*blushes*
Thanks lady, as you'll have gathered if you've read my responses above, it's all been good. Hope yours was too? I will have to drop by and see if you've blogged it. Thankfully I'm not particularly fragile today, so now I'm just relaxing rather than recovering as such :) x
Thanks qv, and I'm glad you appreciated what I wrote about my grandma - so it's good to see also what positives you are experiencing with your own elderly clients, thanks for sharing that. As mentioned above, I'm not too delicate today fortunately, though I aim to avoid further boozing at least until next weekend x
szwag, thank you for that, and damn good to meet you!
I'll just add as a general point that I hope to catch up with everyone's blogs over the next couple of days. I've had a glance at a few sites and am aware that I've missed a lot of new posts, so I'm looking forward to some quality blog-time.
Belated Happy Birthday, Trews... glad your granny is getting support,& it is heartening to see how you treasure the times you spend with her. x
Belated happy birthday wishes. Hope the gig went well.
Well then you share a birthday with my nanna and my father in law, which is nearly as good :)
Glad you had a good'un.
Oh, thank you nmj, for the birthday wishes and for the comments relating to my Grandma: it's at least partially a reflection of how heartening it was to see her so much more intact, which I really wasn't expecting.
Thank you too charlotte, indeed it did go well - I've just posted it up now :)
b, wow, the birthdays really are clustered together in your family aren't they (having said that, my father's birthday would have been on the 9th) - well I hope you've all had good celebrations between you!
April is *the* birthday month for my family. 1st, 10th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 26th, and there are at least two wedding anniversaries that month too :)
Cor blimey (for want of a better phrase). Do you have a detox in May? April must be a great month for you, but not for your liver :)
good for you :)..
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