It's after 10:15AM, and Mom is still sleeping. The process of moving her from slumber to lunch-readiness takes a couple hours, and is entirely guided by Dad, who gets up far earlier than I do. He monitors Mom, helps her to the bathroom, deals with clothes and bed linens (I sometimes help when there's laundry to be done), fixes Mom her daily coffee, hands over her Korean newspaper or Washington Post Magazine puzzle, helps her wash up and dress up, redoes her bandages, makes sure she takes her morning meds, and leads her out to the living room for lunch and/or TV. During the week, Mom needs to be out in the living room and seated by about 12:15 or 12:30, so that she has time to handle lunch without too much pressure, and can then leave the house at 1PM to make her 2PM radiotherapy session.
Today, my own agenda is fairly simple: first, prep some Korean porridge for Mom; second, go out into the back yard and start chopping some of the wood pile down to size. A while back, Dad and David cut away quite a few low-hanging branches of one of the trees in our back yard so that the ramp-building crew could put up the ramp without impediment. The branch removal also serves to give us, the family, a clear path when wheeling Mom out in her wheelchair. Anyway, the branches have been sitting in a pile near the ramp, and need to be cleared out. I can't say that I'll have everything cleared by later today, but-- suburban weakling that I am-- I hope to put a small dent in the pile.
Pastor Jeri will be coming by later today, between 2 and 3PM, I believe. This will be good for Mom, who needs the interaction. Beyond that... it's just a matter of watching over Mom and making sure she doesn't get herself into trouble.
_
Marathon
12 years ago
2 comments:
...hopefully you were able to make a dent in that pile of wood / branches. As a kid, that sort of stuff was always my dad-appointed responsibility. Looking back, i now appreciate what an amazing outlet that was for me: i have always been deeply physical / tactile in terms of how i relate & connect to everthing & everyone around me. Truth be known, i actually LOVE doing that sort of stuff & i wish i was there to help you (heck, i'd even do it for you) ...just don't tell my dad ^.~
L
xo
hello Kevin- in answer to your comment on my blog: this time of year is not as unbelievably hot and muggy as Tokyo or Seoul at this time of year. Friday was very hot and typically its hot during the day and then rains late afternoon or night. I was in Tokyo in August last year and remember that at midnight we were walking home and it was still sultry. Its not like that here, the evening are cool.
I've been reading about your mother - I hope that you and your whole family are doing well.
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