2 years on...

Facebook helpfully reminded me that in May 2017 Okaasan fell down in the kitchen and ended up by November in the current care home.
I was surprised it was only two years. I felt so much longer...so many things have happened.

Now her room is a bright and welcoming English classroom, where students are beginning to settle in and the cats are free to come and go. HER room is at the top of a building downtown - with kind care workers to assist her every move, regular meals and a big TV....loving family visits every week.

I think it really was for the best. The few months after the fall with all the hospital treatments and the awfulness of being tied to a bed and changes in medication - that was grim.
But by late summer and into autumn she finally was physically and mentally stronger, and our care home choice was good. I wish she could see a garden from the windows - not just a cityscape, however I try to tell myself that her focus now is mainly on the TV or the cup of drink in front of her.

We went for Mother's Day, took a pink scarf as a present. Unfortunately, she had an itchy back for some reason and she was complaining about that constantly - the scarf was a momentary concern....but we had tea and snacks with her and Dear Son turned on the charm chat which made her laugh and relax.
The care home doctor has said that she is able to do MORE walking that she currently does, and should be got up out of the wheelchair more and urged to walk....the staff don't really have the time for that, although she walks on the 3 times a week day service visits.

And.

I guess I will have more time...because the old students/friend who has been in hospital for over a year with a brain wasting disease - she died at the weekend. I attended the wake - with a room of crying bus drivers and guides (she was a bus guide) and I have other stuff to do in connection with her death - helping another foreign friend write a letter to her family.

I am happy she has finally died. To see someone, once so active, just in a bed unresponsive for so long. It was hard. Her mother doesn't even live in this city and had to take a 3 hour train journey to visit her.
In the last week her condition became worse and many friends went to say goodbye. On the morning of the day she died I had dropped off a clean bed towel.

Visiting that hospital and walking in the fields of the agricultural college nearby have been part of my routine for over a year. So now I can turn my energy to Okaasan more and help her to enjoy the summer season.