It has been a little over two months since Babu passed. It’s been hard, living here with all of her things, but not her. Husband and I have been finding moments of joy and some of bittersweetness. Her birthday is quickly rushing toward me. It is next month. It will be a really hard time…
Tag: elderly
The Past and Present
I took a dare I made with myself yesterday and I shared a passage with Babu. The dare was to give it one more try, see if it is as bad as I think it is every time. I started with asking her if she remembered writing in a diary every day and she absolutely…
A Day in the Life, 2018, and a Month in 1940: Part Four
“Dobre popowoodnew!” as she crawls from the living room after her long nap. I say good afternoon in Polish slowly, and spell it (incorrectly) even slower. She doesn’t reply but keeps making slow progress towards the bathroom. “How are ya feeling?” I ask as cheerfully as possible but I already sense, and brace myself. She…
A Day in the Life, 2018, and a Month in 1940: Part Two
Babu rises and shines again right around 8:30. Ok, now we are back on track. As she takes about 25 minutes in the bathroom I get breakfast started. I should set my alarm in the morning a lot later because at this point I can do this in my sleep. When the door to the…
A Day in the Life, 2018, and a Month in 1940: Part One
There is some dream, some dream about…my garden. I keep walking, taking turns peering around corners, snooze and there’s more. More yard, more rose bushes. It’s both a marvelous snooze dream, like The Secret Garden! and an anxiety dream. There’s more. More work to do. I could have put the snooze cucumber plants here and…
April A-Z: Insufficient sleep
You really cannot say that Babu had a wild life. She did everything a good woman of the time was supposed to do: waited until marriage, did well in her college studies, got work and was, for the most part, a very dependable employee. Even still, here is one passage I will never forget: Rumble…
Just Tonight
At the end of this long week I got home and was tired. I could have called it bedtime, except for dinner being in a half an hour. By “dinner” I mean making Babu her dinner, and then all the steps to take care of her until she goes to bed around 11. Husband is…
The Mystery of the Hidden Teeth
Two days ago I get up to get Babu’s breakfast ready and I notice something is off. Her teeth are not in her overnight container. This could be bad. One of two things happens when the teeth are not where they are supposed to be: 1. She slept with them in. This is rare because…
All The Best Intentions…
For the last two days I have been working on a post that seems too big for one post and too big for only two or three days worth of processing and reflecting. It is about, well, mostly about, or maybe only a little bit about, “Jakey.” I have been processing something about “Jakey”…
Dog Days Mondays: Stella and Babu
One thing I can say about all of the dogs I’ve brought into this house, and that’s two adopted and two fosters, they have all been great around Babu. I think they know: that is a nonnegotiable if there ever was one. That’s good, because the major concern must be Babu’s safety and well being….
The Case of Patches and Miley
I began a post today, a post I’ve been writing for the last hour, that intended to make the world understand the absolute insanity I put up with. It also attempted to purge and cathart, something I still drastically need. But trash talking members of this family is something I have promised myself I wouldn’t…
Writing Wednesdays: All The Feels
Distractions! Flowers and kittens and my dog and funny hats and clown noses. Whatever it takes. I’m not talking about distractions from my writing time, all I need is my phone for that. I’m talking about distracting Babu from things that upset her. This is more important than making her happy, it’s keeping her healthy. …
transcribingmemory 