Missed Mail and Close Calls

I applied for my Colorado driver's license on February 5, 2020. I have not yet received it so I went on-line to track down its whereabouts. Turns out it was mailed to me February 10, but returned as "un-deliverable." I double checked the address on my temporary card and it is correct. So, I can't get a hold of the DMV because offices are closed until May 18. I then will need an appointment to go into the office to retrieve it. They've got all my contact information, but of course have not contacted me. A bother, but small in comparison to the next bit of news.

Yesterday was my parents' 65th wedding anniversary. I called around lunchtime and got no answer. Odd. But I didn't panic. Maybe they were out walking their hallway at the retirement center.

Then I got the call at 4 pm from my dad: my almost 86 year old mom is in the hospital after having fallen down and hitting her head. Paramedics were needed to get her up, and they took her to the Emergency Room since her hip hurt as well and she's already suffered two broken hips over the last eleven years. Of course Dad can't go into the hospital with her and that is a critical danger for her. She cannot tolerate opioids of any kind, but this is on the medical information sheet the center gave the paramedics as they wheeled her out. She also is cognitively impaired as a result of Parkinson's, and becomes terribly paranoid and panicked in a hospital setting.

My thoughts began to race about all the terrible possibilities that lie ahead. Luckily, and thankfully, dad was able to pick her up at the end of the day and take her home. Whew. We worry about mom; she's very weak from almost thirty years with Parkinson's, and any chest infection would likely kill her. She's also becoming very difficult to move, even for trained caregivers, because she is so stiff and weak of limb. If and when she can no longer be cared for in their apartment she would need to be moved to the skilled nursing unit. In this time of COVID-19, people in that unit cannot receive any visitors. For my mother this would heighten her dementia and cause untold suffering. I was spinning out with worry that she would have to undergo surgery and recover in the SN unit and it would be a nightmare for her.

This is the same unit where my husband died in January this year. They take good care of people there, but it is still something no one would want. There is much sadness, suffering, and death there. Luckily, Steve was there for just over a week. He hated it. It was a blessed relief when he quietly slipped away in the wee hours of the morning.
So now that I've depressed the living shite out of you, how about some soothing music?




Happy May Day! I remember making paper cones of flowers for my mother on May Day when I was in elementary school. Did you do that?