SeedPearl of Sleet

[ismo]

That was a day and a half. It was almost entirely Madame, although I did have more time than expected just to sit with the Sparrowhawk while waiting for the text that would let me know Madame was ready to be picked up. I called her last night just to check on our date for lunch today. She was glad to hear from me, because she had a meeting scheduled for 11-ish with her daughter and the admins from a respite care place that she had decided would be acceptable to her. That's when we normally meet, but I said I'd be glad to get together afterwards. She thought the meeting might last an hour. Around noon, I got a flustered text from her daughter, who had just been told that Madame expected to see me, and thought she must be confused. I explained. She told me she thought the meeting would end around one. Sure enough, I arrived at the facility around one, and Madame and her daughter were just coming out. I drove up and carried her off. It's not easy to get her into my car. I brought a wooden step-stool to help her climb aboard. But there's still the problem of folding up the walker and hoisting it into the back, plus handling Madame's overstuffed purse that mysteriously still never contains whatever it is that she needs at the moment. We'll get back to that . . . .

We had a nice lunch at the bookstore. Somewhat miraculously, she did have her card and bought my lunch. So now she only owes me three or four more. However, it took a long time and EVERYTHING takes a long time. I was prepared for that, but maybe not prepared enough. The day was strongly windy and cold, so I had to take extra care in bringing the car around and making sure she didn't stand out in the wind. When we arrived at her house, I reminded her that she'd have to give me the key and let me go through the front door to open the garage, so she could get in via the lower door, which is safer than the front with its numerous concrete steps. She no longer has the garage door opener, because it's with the car, which her daughter is keeping.

Here's where trouble began, because she couldn't find her keys. She unloaded her purse a couple of times, and still nothing. She finally called her daughter to come and let her into the house. Her daughter didn't pick up. I was about to suggest I drive her back to my house where we could wait more comfortably, when the daughter actually did call back and said she'd be there in a few minutes. We waited for over half an hour, but she did show up and opened up the garage. Then she took off rapidly on the grounds that she didn't feel well and needed to go lie down. So it fell to me to make sure Madame got safely into the house. Then she wanted me to help her find her keys. We looked all around. She then removed them from her pocket, where I think they had been all the time. Mystery solved! I think maybe she got confused about which keys were needed. She was sort of fixated on not having her car keys, and didn't realize that the house keys were the ones we needed.

At any rate, I'm delighted to hear that her room at the respite care will be ready on Tuesday. I hope that next week I'll visit her there and she can give me the tour. She said "they"--oh that perfidious "they" that rules the lives of older people--had told her that she could not drive any more, but they didn't explain why. She's very upset and sad about this, as who would not be. But they are so right. She really should not be driving, and she should not be alone, and I'm so glad that "they" are moving in the direction of a solution to that, however imperfect the solution may be.

Meanwhile, I've seldom been so glad to get home and do nothing.