Monday, November 23, 2015

The Tidbits of News...

Wednesday, November 18th, was the day to take Papa to the nursing home with a DVD of old country music for the residents to view. A little history here will help...

When Papa was released from the hospital Monday evening, I went ahead to bring my car to the front of the hospital. While approaching my car, I saw Ashley. She worked at the nursing home when Mimi was a resident there. Her mother, Kim, has always worked at the nursing home and still does. Kim was a major help when I had questions about Mimi's paper work. I was surprised to see Ashley and asked her why she was at the hospital. It turns out her little boy was really sick and had been admitted. She left the hospital for a bit and Kim was in the hospital with her son while she took a little break. I explained about Papa having a heart attack. She hurried in to see her son and I hurried to get my car moved to the front of the hospital. Needless to say, but I will say it anyway (ha ha!), Ashley told Kim about Papa. 

When Papa and I arrived at the nursing home Wednesday, Kim had told the people that know him about his heart attack and they were not expecting him to show up with his DVD. It was nice to see the joy in their eyes and voices as he entered. They are like extended family and it was good that his first outing was to be with these friends that are so like family.

Wednesday evening Claude and I attended tithing settlement for the year with Bishop Manwaring. I also took Papa's tithing record and gave it to the Bishop to declare him a full tithe payer. Bishop has been to see Papa twice this month and Papa said he really felt that Bishop didn't need to interview him again. Bishop thought that was very nice of Papa. 

Thursday evening we went to Bailey's performance at school. I'll blog about that in my next post.

Friday, November 20th, I bought Papa a few groceries and took them to his apartment. I wiped down the kitchen and did the dishes, refilled his meds, then I sat to visit and crochet for a bit. Papa was fixing his lunch when I arrived. He sat and drank his lunch while we visited. After a little bit he asked for a Slim Fast. I got that for him. He drank it. Then we watched a game show and visited. After a bit he said, "I think I'm having another heart attack. It feels like one is coming on." I told him I would sit and we would wait a bit to be sure. He also thought it might be that he was just full from eating. I waited with him for another hour and a half and he gradually got better. He was pretty sure it was eating and not a heart attack. Nothing like a little scare to keep you on your toes!

Saturday was my day at home. Christmas is coming and I needed to have a Sandi Santa Workshop day in my sewing room. I made 5 items on my sewing machine throughout the day. Then I did some Christmas crafting on my computer for the evening. Very full day and very fulfilling. I haven't done that kind of sewing in a while and it truly felt good. Will post pictures of my projects after Christmas...if I remember!

Yesterday I went to Sacrament Meeting and totally enjoyed the talks. Aubrey and Breck Manwaring have been in my Institute class. They have both been called to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They will both leave on December 2nd, Aubrey to Chile and Breck to Provo to learn Spanish before going to Argentina. Last Wednesday was their last institute class before they leave. We won't have class this Wednesday because of Thanksgiving this week. We had a time at the end of class to go over some assessment questions about our course of study. Breck shared things he wrote down about what he has learned studying "Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel". It was amazing listening to him share the things he learned and felt. Then to hear he and Aubrey speak during Sacrament meeting was so uplifting. They each shared a favorite parable. Aubrey focused on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. She tied it in with her life and did a remarkable job of correlating the two and then tying it to her mission call and service. Love this young lady's grasp of life. Breck chose the Parable of the Mustard Seed. He did a masterful job of articulating how our belief grows through the actions of faith into a full tree of testimony and understanding. So happy I could hear these two talks.

After attending Sunday School, I skipped out of Relief Society. My heart tells me to spend time with Papa and I follow those promptings. Papa was watching BYU-TV and we sat and visited and I crocheted (again!) while we watched and visited. There was an advertisement on about the Opry Video collection. As we watched I enjoyed the snippets of music they played. These are live performances on the Grand Ole Opry by the original artists. These are the DVD's we take to the nursing home every Wednesday afternoon and watch with the residents. So, I'm enjoying the music and crocheting. Then Papa says, "I've thought I would like to purchase a set of these. I think I would really enjoy them."  I told Papa he had a set and that is what we take to the nursing home every Wednesday. He assured me this was different. I assured him every song they sang were ones we view on Wednesday. We watched a bit more and he again expressed this was different as there were at least 7-8 DVD's in the set they were advertising. I stood up and walked to the shelf and pointed to the row of these DVD's on his shelf and told him this was the same set. He seemed to understand then that he did already own the same set. In truth, he purchased a second set long ago, realized he already had one and gave me the second set as he knows I enjoy these old recordings. In my heart I have always felt that, when Papa passes, I would take the set he uses and give them to the nursing home. I know that he ordered a third set one time and I mailed it back to Time Life for a refund. While he was in the hospital, I was clearing out some things from his apartment that he doesn't ever use and would not miss and what did I find tucked in a video cabinet...another set of the same videos. This tells me how much he likes this set of music DVDs. It also tells me how short his memory is. It does not bode well for my personal future...

Today, I'm off to clean Papa's apartment and then do our Thanksgiving grocery shopping. We are to have Katelyn and Drew Roper, our grand-daughter and her hubby, and Jacob Christensen, our son, visit over Thanksgiving weekend. While we have the turkey and the brisket to smoke, we need to get the fresh supplies so we can hunker down if the weather gets bad and just enjoy some time together.

No comments:

Post a Comment