Making Papa at Home...

It is official and permanent. Papa is not in Room 107 at Signature Health Care in Georgetown. He was moved there when Matt, his room mate in Room 105, was brought back from surgery with an infection and had to be isolated. Room 107 allows Papa to be in a bed by the window and he does like that better.

Over the weeks, I had moved the picture of Papa and Mimi not long after the wedding, the calendar I made him for Christmas last year with family pictures on each month, and the picture of the Salt Lake Temple into Room 107 and hung them on his closet and the walls. I also found a red Christmas star with some greenery on it and his canvas of the Mini's feet prints from years ago (mistletoes) up for Christmas decorations and put them in Room 107. What I was missing was the bulletin board of pictures given to him on his 90th birthday from family. I took all the pictures off and tried to get that bulletin board off the wall but it simply wouldn't come off. I put it up with Velcro command strips. The Velcro was really, really stuck together. I finally just gave up on that, determined to leave that bulletin board right there for the next resident, saved the pictures for a future bulletin board in Papa's new room.

Tuesday, December the 10th, I brought a new bulletin board to Papa's room. I got all the pictures on it and put the Velcro strips on and it and stuck it to the wall. Then I sat down for a visit with Papa. It wasn't long before the bulletin board crashed to the ground. I stuck it back up on the wall and held it for a good long time. It seemed to have stuck to the wall. I again sat down to visit Papa. After a while, the bulletin board fell off the wall again. Kevin, the maintenance man for the nursing home came by and said he had some double-sided tape he would get and try it. He put the tape on the velcro and that has stayed up just fine. By the way, Kevin had also tried to pull the bulletin board off the wall in Room 105 and he couldn't get it to come off either. He is a strong man so I didn't feel too bad about my futile efforts to remove that bulletin board.

Tuesday afternoon Claude and I went to Lowe's and purchased a shepherd's hook, bird feeder and bird food.

Wednesday, Claude came to the nursing home after he went to physical therapy and ran other errands. When he came to pick me up, I went out and showed him where to plant that shepherd's hook outside Papa's window. Then I went back in and had Papa sit up so we could tell Claude just where to position the shepherd's hook and bird feeder. Claude got it set and we headed home. If you look closely in you can see the shepherd's hook through the window. Sadly, to this date, Papa has seen absolutely no birds through the window on the shepherd's hook. It finally dawned on me that this is winter and there are not as many birds out there this time of year. Ugh!!

As I drove home, I paused to take this picture of the moon. It was such a huge moon. It was simply gorgeous.