This Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful for. My daughters are healthy. Two of them are buying their first house.
The weekend went as planned to a point. We drove to Vicki’s in Indiana on Wednesday night. I was disappointed Virginia and Stephanie couldn’t get time off to come up but understand that between new job for Virginia and the new house they couldn’t make it.
Thursday was good with cooking, hanging out with Vicki, and checking in with the girls in Georgia. Friday Vicki and I went to JoAnn’s for their sale. The morning was fun with yarn shopping and fabric shopping for Vicki. Ken sat in the car waiting as we shopped. He is a very patient man – mostly.
We went to Menards next as they had some things on sale that Ken and Vicki wanted. I wrote in my journal and listened to music.
Friday evening my sister, Alicia called. My mother suffered a stroke Friday morning. It was mild and didn’t do a lot of damage. Alicia was busy running errands in the morning but when she got home she noticed mom was a little off. She took her to urgent care who then sent them to emergency and they did their thing and ended up sending mom to the hospital. Fortunately this is all in one building.
It is hell being three states away when someone you love is suffering and you just want to go to her. Normally I would be ten minutes from where she was being treated and could have gone to offer support. I’m grateful that Alicia and my niece Cristina kept me up-to-date while we were so far away.
After many phone calls apprising me of the situation, we opted to cut our visit a little short and come home about six hours earlier than we had planned. We got back to town and immediately went to gather with the family.
One of my sister’s gave me a run down of how mom was and what the occupational therapist had to say. It was a relief to hear the information. We opted not to go visit mom on Saturday night because there was a line of people who all visited her. We were concerned about taxing her when she needed rest. Other people were taking care of her, keeping her company.
Today we went over and spent a long time with her. The doctor came in and the physical therapist came in while I was there. They were very encouraging and positive about mom’s condition.
Tonight I’m grateful to my husband and my daughters who offered their support to me while I was stressed and worried about my mother. While driving back from Indiana, Ken held my hand while I cried. I kept flashing back to when my grandmother was in the hospital before she died. We all lined up in the waiting room for our turn to visit with her. The comfort of his hand in mine, the strength that he gave me with just holding my hand helped me push those memories away and deal with what was going on rather than the sad memories of losing my grandmother.
My daughters have listened to long conversations about the situation up here. They have offered their love and support for which I’m very grateful.
Most important, I’m grateful that my mother is doing well and moving towards recovery. I know she is determined and strong enough to come back from this. I am glad the medical professionals took good care of her and are helping her recover.
