Birthday...

 Okaasan's 95th birthday was this month.

She doesn't know it, of course. Long gone are the days of a crabby meal out, and hiding the sake bottle.

I made up this small poster of photographs and we asked the nurse at the hospital if we could attach it to the bedside cabinet - really for the staff to see it and realize that this hardly-responsive human, attached to tubes -  used to be this woman.

Handsome husband, cute boys, a foreign daughter-in-law and a life.

95 years of a life which are ending in this hospital bed in a city far away from where she was born and lived her life.

We continue to go in and sit with Okaasan once a week. Some floors of the hospital close and reopen as whatever latest infection spreads around. Okaasan is still on the meds. Her skin condition looks good, she "sleeps" and responds only to loud noises or sudden movement - which we try not to let happen.

Our summer has been hot - crazy temperatures in June and July. I hid inside with the fan and a book for days. The new apartment building directly opposite is almost finished and we have to be careful about our privacy and keeping curtains closed.

No big trips - BBQs with friends, I've been out on the SUP, and a young British man came to stay off/on because we live near the hospital where he is doing physical therapy after a ski accident.

More recently: the cat has been diagnosed with a skin tumor and a weak heart. He'll be 16 this winter and it's the inevitable sign that he is aging. He seems fine in himself, and even caught a bird recently. But 16 years old for a cat that has outside experiences is getting on a bit.

And MY signs of aging too...I fell off the steps of the RV and badly twisted my ankle. Hobbling around, with a trail of ice packs. I don't THINK anything is seriously injured, but it's a bugger.

Hope your summer is a good one :-)

Still here in north Japan!