May Visit

 Gonna be struck off the Care Home Visit List soon!

This time we actually got the time wrong and almost missed our 15 mins of valuable communication time (heavy sarcasm intended...)

He wrote it down as 3:30 pm. I had it at 3 pm.

3.01 pm the care home called to remind us we had a dearly loved relative in its care. So we rushed to go visit, grabbing the little pot of fake flowers that were a sad offering for Mother's Day.

Made it in time and sat bedside.

Okaasan was peaceful/doped up. She opened her eyes a little, shook her head a bit. Didn't make any of the awful sounds of before. We sat and tried to fill in the silence with our voices talking about the weather, flowers, recent news...

Then a nurse came up with a large plastic bag of stuff! "We found this, maybe you should take it home?" - "this" was Okaasan's old red cardigan (one of several), a T shirt, socks, underwear, hospital slippers...

It was probably transferred with her when she came to this care home 2? years ago, stashed away in the bedside closet and forgotten. Okaasan doesn't and will never again wear these clothes because now she is in pajamas and with pillows to prop her up in the best position for the tubes in and out.

So it all came home for the trash bin. We still have some of her clothes here, just because it actually feels somehow wrong to completely throw them away...I've kept the good stuff. I kind of think she might wear them in her coffin? Or, do bodies in Japan get dressed in special white clothing? My Dad went out wearing his brightest shirt and socks. I feel Okaasan might prefer to go out wearing her favorite blouse and scarf.