Cheers! Here's to us!
Okaasan and me celebrated...OMG...9 ? years since we moved in to live together?
Facebook tells me that 2009 March we moved with Okaasan into this big old house in the suburbs of Sapporo and started life together. Before that for a few months she was living in a neighboring apartment after moving up from her home near Tokyo.
And I was frantically trying to cook multi-plated traditional foods in a tiny kitchen.
So.
Sunday afternoon DS was away on spring ski work and I took Okaasan out in a wheelchair from the care home. Enough snow has melted that we could actually trundle a few blocks in sunshine and then go to a convenience store for coffee and rice dumplings filled with red bean jam.
She was happy and mentally healthy. Chatty and friendly. Near us in the cafe were two bar workers and a gentleman friend...the care home is just near the night district of the city...and so a Spanish and a Mexican lady with a lifetime of experiences written all over their faces chatted to us and told Okaasan how lucky she was to have a great daughter-in-law.
Bar mamas tell it like it is. :-)
We did a joint visit yesterday - kind of rare for us in winter.
Okaasan was asleep when we arrived. Sitting in her wheelchair, in front of the TV...dozing after a busy morning of physical therapy and then lunch.
She seemed happy enough, we chatted, wheeled the chair outside and around the corner to the lobby of a hotel...and then encouraged her to walk in the care home corridor with the walker.
She is fast walking now. But her whole body weight is forward, on the walking frame. She isn't standing upright at all.
But, the time - and season - is coming when we will be able to take her OUT of the care home for a visit to a different environment. A hotel lobby or convenience store for coffee, and maybe even a restaurant for a meal? If the toilets are accessible etc. If SHE doesn't panic in an unfamiliar place.
We will try. Days are getting brighter and warmer. Had a snow storm 2 days ago, which was a wonder for skiers - I'd given up my skiing for this season, but even I got out for just-one-more-day.
I also had to do another shopping trip for Okaasan. Bath towels and long-sleeved shirts. Hopefully what I bought will be ok. Dear Son passed along the care home request for clothing to me - because OBVIOUSLY I am a WOMAN and can do shopping.....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Don't get me started on the sexist assumptions in this....he is a Japanese male and lives in the stone age.
Anyway. Waiting for spring and a time to take Okaasan out in sunshine.
Yup. I KNOW! Another month and no blogging.
Work has swept me along...and visiting my old student in hospital...and worrying about what to do about the stray cat near the house.
And end of winter funk? Blues? I had one really bad week where I could hardly get up energy to do anything, just about made it to work with a smile. Then a falling out with an old friend. It wasn't a good time.
Dear Son is now back home for a break between ski work - so at least I have a cook :-) Things are getting better.
DS went to see Okaasan in the care home and tried to get her signature on the mobile phone contract. Something about cancelling the contract for her phone.
He was shocked to realize that she couldn't sign her name. She could hold the pen, but however much he pointed and directed her hand to the place to sign - she was struggling. And struggling to write the correct characters.
"Oh, I became so stupid!" she said...and finally he gave up.
It was something she could do before. Make notes of things on TV and in magazines, write her name...and with prompting her address. And now...gone.....
A shock to him. And reinforces how hard it would ever be to get her, legally, to sell the house. He is waiting until end of March to get all the care costs for 3 clear months - then he can apply to the family court for status to be her representative etc. THEN finally...if that is approved...he can sell the family house near Tokyo. Could take months and months.
Anyway. Still waiting for spring. Huge snow storm for 2 days here. People died in their cars, including one rescue staff. Spring is coming strom.
And I am sitting here in my classroom on a Saturday morning with a hissy/angry stray cat in a cage on the carpet - under a blanket. I got a cage and advice from an NPO and last night we finally caught him. Today I am waiting for the go-ahead from the NPO to take him in to their vets for neutering and check, so we can decide what to do next.
He isn't at all friendly. I did exchange one Jackson Galaxy slooooow blink with him/her, but I wonder if he is feral, or a former pet who had to live wild for too long. I spotted him in January, living under a neighbor's house and my cats were yowling and chasing him. No neighbors know about him. I've fed him. But...not hopeful he will make a pet now.
Will keep you posted!!
Oh - and also about Okaasan....
