I keep a little notebook in the glove compartment and write one line at the end of every trip, usually in the driveway on Sunday night before I go in the house. Barry says it's the closest thing I have to a diary. Here's this year so far, typed up.
| Friday, January 8 to Sunday, January 10 |
| Ice on 33 past Logan. Four and a half hours. Took down the Christmas tree that Mom has been "fixing to take down" since New Year's. |
| Friday, January 22 DIDN'T GO |
| Snow all the way from Columbus to Charleston. Called Mom three times Saturday. Leona went over twice. Mom says I worry too much. Mom is right and also wrong. |
| Friday, February 5 to Sunday, February 7 |
| Made up for lost time. Found the electric bill under the sugar canister. Filled two weeks of pill boxes. |
| Friday, February 19 to Sunday, February 21 |
| Mom's ankles swollen. Called the doctor's answering service Saturday morning. Dr. Hayhurst called back in twenty minutes and changed her water pill. She grumbled. The swelling went down by Sunday. |
| Friday, March 5 to Sunday, March 7 |
| Ordinary weekend. Church potluck. Shirley's coconut cake, which Mom is not supposed to have and had. |
| Tuesday, March 16 to Sunday, March 21 EMERGENCY |
| Leona called at 6:10 in the morning. Mom couldn't catch her breath, and she'd pushed the button for the first time. Ambulance to the hospital in Beckley. I was on 33 by seven. Fluid from the heart failure; four days in the hospital. I took the week off under the family leave law and slept on her couch. The home health nurse started the next Monday. I've never been so glad to see Mom mad at me as I was when she got home. |
| Friday, April 2 to Sunday, April 4 |
| Easter. Mom made it to the eleven o'clock service in her lavender suit. Randy called and talked to her for an hour. She told him I was bossy. |
| Friday, April 16 to Sunday, April 18 |
| Signed the papers for Meals on Wheels. Starts Monday. Mom says she can cook for herself. She can't, not safely, and she knows it, which is why she said it so loud. |
| Friday, April 30 to Sunday, May 2 |
| Planted tomatoes and peppers. Mom supervised from a lawn chair. I am planting them wrong, according to Mom, the same way I have planted them wrong since 1962. |
| Friday, May 7 to Sunday, May 9 |
| Swapped weekends for Mother's Day. Meagan came with me. Three generations on the porch swing. Best weekend of the year so far. |
| Friday, May 21 to Sunday, May 23 |
| The talk about the senior apartment. It did not go well. Quiet till Charleston, then a lot of tissues. |
| Friday, June 4 to Sunday, June 6 |
| First visit with Mrs. Kinser, the care manager. Mom liked her right away because she's a retired nurse "and doesn't talk to me like I'm simple." I'll take it. |
| Friday, June 18 to Sunday, June 20 |
| Barry came along. He spent Father's Day fixing my mother's porch rail and eating her pinto beans and cornbread. That's love. |
| Friday, July 2 to Sunday, July 4 |
| Fourth of July from Mom's porch. The fire department shot fireworks over the ballfield. Mom fell asleep before the finale with her hand on the dog tag. |
| Friday, July 16 to Sunday, July 18 |
| Hot as blazes. Mom's window air conditioner died. Bought a new one Saturday morning; Barry talked me through putting it in over the phone. Heat is hard on a weak heart. I didn't leave till it was cold in there. |
| Friday, July 30 to Sunday, August 1 |
| Rain both ways. A good week on her sugar log. We did a crossword and watched her stories, and that was the whole weekend, and it was a good one. |
| Friday, August 13 to Sunday, August 15 |
| Mom's 79th birthday on Saturday, and Randy flew in from Houston, his first visit since Christmas of 1997. Cake from the Committee. Randy and I sat on the porch till one in the morning and really talked, for the first time in years. He took over the insurance paperwork that night. I could have kissed him. I think I did. |
| Friday, August 27 DIDN'T GO |
| On purpose. Meagan's first football game with the marching band. Mrs. Kinser went by on Saturday and Leona on Sunday. Mom was fine. Meagan was wonderful. |
| Friday, September 3 to Monday, September 6 |
| Labor Day, a long one. Mom agreed to let an aide come two mornings a week to help with her bath. After two years of no. I sang along with the radio from Charleston to Columbus. |
| Friday, September 17 to Sunday, September 19 |
| A quiet one. Canned the last of the tomatoes, wrong. Mom asked about Meagan's band and Barry's back. She was sharp and funny and herself. I drove home into the sunset and didn't cry once. |
| NEXT: Friday, October 1 |
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