It helps to have Anzac Biscuits on hand when the days are flying by with company arriving to help with the transitions. I have found the perfect place for Lee to go next. On the day I had my appointment to look over the place, a room became available…..a perfect room. A deposit was put down the following day. All requirements have been met on our end thanks to having our doctor close and a long time friend arrive in time to keep me focused and help get things sorted out and hidden here in the apartment where I can pack them in my car without him seeing and asking questions.
Another friend is moving the furniture from here that Lee will need into his apartment room early next week and Lee will follow. A furniture store is delivering a new recliner/rocker to the memory care facility next week. The only hold up is how soon I can get possession of the room because the woman moving from it to another available room is held up because where she is going has not been cleared out after the occupant went to a “higher calling” as they say for passing away.
My job is to get the room/apartment completely set up before Lee arrives so it looks a bit familiar with the things he sees each day. Several paintings of mine will be on the walls. His favorite blankets on the bed and in his chair, a TV sitting on his mothers old chest of drawers, and a chair pulled up to a table he made years ago using sewing machine legs for a base. On that table will be a large wooden bowl that he turned a long time ago with rocks that thoughtful friends have sent him and another turned piece holding turkey feathers. The two lamps in the room will be ones he made out of old split logs.
Of course his white bag that he keeps his cards in will also be on the table. Again, thank you everyone who has sent him notes and cards this past couple of years. He likes holding that bag. I can also take several pairs of his work gloves to tuck into a drawer.
The facility told me that the maintenance staff will take men like Lee with a need to be outside working on things around to the shed and find small manageable jobs they can do. He would love to be back in a vehicle for maintenance riding around ready with his gloves on. This seems the most perfect place for him and I can’t tell you how happy I am that we kept up our long term care insurance.
Here he is the evening before our savior friend left for home.
Each resident of the memory ward has something on their door so they can find their own room easier. I am going to put this bamboo head on a hanger to take down when I set the room up. He faces it when he takes his chair at the table on the porch.
There is so much he does not remember but having a sense of familiar around him will help both of us.
Today I found the necessary things in one stop…a shower curtain and rings, laundry basket, waste bin, shampoo, soap, aspirin and boxes of tissues. Already set aside are necessary linens, battery operated toothbrush to take the place of his electric one, toothpaste, blankets, etc. Our friend even re-covered a chair for him to pull up to his table while she was here. She accomplished a lot in just eight days while keeping me focused.
I did try to work on my Drawing fabric scraps book…..
Smudged pencil sketches of fragments that are fitting my mood of worn out….and another stitched scrap is put into place.
I will write more updates as time permits…..
Til later….
