Rooms with memories....

TEN years ago we moved to this house with Okaasan...and really started life together. In a big old house in the Sapporo suburbs. We basically lived upstairs and she had two big rooms downstairs.

The picture at the top of this blog was taken that day. Okaasan and me, sitting on the sofa in her newly arranged room, which we had set up with a big TV, a heated table, clothes hanging place, futons etc etc

She never really used both rooms. The tatami room became a clothes - and SO much more - store...bags...bags...bags...old bits of food...shoes....Hawaiian dance stuff....knickknacks...

She lived in the main room - slept/ate/had toilet accidents/watched hours of TV/fiddled around with magazines and newspapers....SO much of what's happened to us happened in that room. Laughs and anger. Cross-cultural warzone.

And then...finally...life for Okaasan here became too hard. The fall...the broken bone...the incapacity..the raging fury....the hospitals and care homes...it became clear she would never come back. In fact we don't risk even a visit here, in case it sparks off confusion about where "home" is. She proudly and happily now calls her 10th floor room and the care home her "home".

Since then it's taken me two years to clear out the rooms here at our home - get rid of stuff/keep essentials. We've used the rooms for guests and drying laundry. The cats have moved in, with great joy, to the old carpet in front of the heater. In our conversation the room has changed from "Okaasan's room", to "Chichi's room" and "the downstairs room"....

And now. A new era is born.

 

Yes, there is the old sofa....the very cleaned floor (we all know what happened on THAT floor!)...the blue curtains. Cat.

It's about to become an English classroom. Somehow. By next week....

I decided to make some big changes in my work life: close the rented apartment which I've used for over 11 years and move the lessons to home. Rearrange some other teaching too and try to free up more time for tour guide work. That's the grand plan.

The past few weeks have been a stressed time of trying to make those changes. A lot of goodbyes to students. Changes which will be good, I hope. But at the moment, just feel like stress.

So. this room with all its memories....about to make some new memories. :-)

* We went and saw Okaasan yesterday. Took her out in the car to a shopping mall and had a wheelchair walk and coffee. She IS much more confused about doing simple physical things now, getting in and out of the car, the toilet etc And as we sat in a Hawaiian themed cafe we asked her if she'd been to Hawaii...

She said she'd never been. Had no memories of that...no memories of much to do with Hawaii....so sad....I listened to that story a million times...and now it is MY memory. Not hers.

:-(

Out with the old...in with...???

Okaasan's care home service provider changes.
What a Balls Up.

Another big meeting yesterday.
Looks like the new company hoped to take over the contract and use the existing staff. But the staff are loyal to the old company, because it rescued them from a previous company that went bankrupt...

Some families (like us) have signed with the new company.
Some families have stayed with the old company.
The Old company hopes to open another home, elsewhere in the city - and some families plan to move their elderly to that.
And information about the elderly residents can't be shared between the staff of the different companies - for privacy legal reasons.

And from April 1st there will be staff from TWO different care companies operating on the same floor!! But the old company staff won't be allowed to stand behind the nurse station counter or use those call machines etc, using a telephone system instead.

Yes. That's right.

30 elderly residents on the same floor, using the same shared lounge, toilets etc - will be under the daily care of different company staff....
Can't fathom how THAT will work.
If an old person falls in the toilet and the staff from the "other" company come running, will they actually step away and NOT help?

There were no clear answers at the meeting yesterday. 

While Dear Son enjoyed all of that, I actually did the Okaasan visit.
Bundled her up in her coat and took her for a wheelchair trip round the local streets, to the cafe in the convenience store for a drink.
She is pretty passive now. Happy in a way. But just looks around at life.
NO interest at all in buying a women's magazine - so strange that she used to live to buy and read these magazines just a few years ago. Now, no interest.
We stopped to look in an antique shop window and the friendly owner came out for a chat...Okaasan told him she had been born in Tokyo....a lady who has always felt GREAT pride in her Kawagoe birthplace. Definitely NOT Tokyo. I was surprised...
Such familiar things are falling away from her? Magazines? Birthplace?

Back in the care home I left her with a cup of coffee in front of the TV and joined the families for the Balls Up Meeting.

What a mess.

I just hope that Japanese people being so Japanese - the actual day to day care on the 10th and 11th floors will go well - because they staff of the two different companies will cooperate with eachother. 
But it's a strange situation

Changes....

Sunday afternoon we are at the care home.
In the big room used for karaoke and social things. Us and lots of other middle aged people. The Families. 
Big meeting with the management and staff.

We discover that the recently announced Change of Building Ownership - actually happened...last year...in October. And we just hear about it now! New owner is a real estate company...obviously just an asset sale. Big block of land in central Sapporo, with this care home and hospital on it.

The Families are not happy.....lots of grumblings about how late this news was passed on.

Short coffee break.

Then 10th and 11th Floor Families have another meeting - and hear that in April...just over 4 weeks away - the company that provides the care for our dearly beloved - THAT will change too. And the staff may change....

The grumblings grew louder.
Japanese people are slow to complain, but when they do....one after another they took the microphone and got and more direct with the management about how badly this had all been handled.
Why weren't we told earlier?
What kind of service change?
Costs?
Staff?

Was there actually any choice in this...because they want us to sign new contracts by March 8th.
It all seemed a bit like British politics to me - Prime Minister May's "My Deal or No Deal" for Brexit.

Of course, nobody knows if they new care company will be worse or better. We are happy with the staff now, and of course hope they continue - but if salaries and work conditions offered by the new company are not good - who can blame them for jumping ship?

So.....we'll just sign the documents and hope for the best.

Care homes in Japan. Big booming business now. Understaffed - really REALLY need more staff for all these care companies.
We are just the customers...hoping for the best.

Up and walking agin

Okaasan is up and about.
Phew!
A little quieter and confused. But able to stand and walk with her walking frame.
Big relief.
We went together on saurday and did a visit. She was in the main room watching Tv in her wheelchair. Happy to see us and we did a small walk up and down the care home corridors and shared a coffee in the downstairs lobby of the next door hospital.

She was noticeably quieter...her gaze drifted around and she had to be called back into a conversation a few times. But good.
Her floor at the care home doesn't have influenza any more - although other areas of the home do - so we hope she's escaped the usual winter influenza outbreak. We did too - touch wood. Pretty healthy :-)