I also ask her to make a list of things that I can do for her while I'm here. This time it included painting and covering a darling little rocking footstool that she found at a sale somewhere. I also painted a small dog statue she fell in love with at one of the yard sales we went to. I put up the small windmill on her driveway and raked leaves from the neighbors' trees that blew into her fence. I ran the vacuum in the living room, changed her furnace filter, and drained her hot water tank (per her insistence . She shouldn't do these things herself but is likely to try, so my sisters and I try to keep up on them.
Our meals throughout the week were our usual list of things Mom and I can agree on: lunchmeat, Mom's bbq, mac & cheese, and beef tips.
Mom talked to me a little bit about her youth. She gave me a ribbon from a picnic she went to with Erma and Nellie in Fairmont Park in California. She also talked about her time with Jack in Illinois, before he became a plumber Jobs were not easy to come by for a jack-of-all-trades laborer like my dad was at the time. Mom told me that he used to go to a place where workers waited for jobs, sort of like they do around Home Depot in some areas now. At one time he worked as a fireman on the railroad for awhile, and Mom also said that Dad was a taxi driver in East Peoria for a few months. I didn't know any of this before now. We both recalled the time when Dad work one Valentine's day in the bitter cold, and used the money to buy 4 cameo necklaces - one for each of us.
I was able to visit with Ruth, Becky and Kathy this time - it's difficult to get together with Ruth, so that was nice. We all had lunch together at DQ, and back at Mom's house I got to visit with Becky and Kathy while Ruth napped.
Mom keeps a tidy house but doesn't mention it when I leave my bed unmade. Her guest room is very small and there is no dresser, nor room for a piece of luggage on the floor. Not much fits on the tiny round lamp table, so my luggage and other stuff ends up on the bed. Making or unmaking the bed involves moving my stuff and the bedding between the bedroom to the living room, just to get maneuvering room. It's just not worth it to me. This goes against Mom's DNA but bless her heart, she just asks me to keep the door closed during the day. She would have never let me get by with that when I was a teenager, but she doesn't get to see me as often now so she doesn't care about the same things as she did then!
Her friend Lisa came to visit one day. When Mom volunteered at the library, Lisa was the person who most often provided Mom with a ride to and from the library. Mom hasn't been at the library for awhile but Lisa comes to visit every couple of weeks, bringing some paperback books for Mom. This time she called to say she would be late because she had to drop her dog off first. I was the one who answered the phone and I was missing my dog so I asked her to please bring the dog with her. I know Mom doesn't love dogs but she isn't afraid of them. It turns out Lisa's dog is a Doberman Pincher. Big. But very well behaved and quite friendly. She wanted to be friends with Mom, but Mom doesn't pet dogs.
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