AN UPDATE ON BETTY"S WEEK

Somehow the days all run together in the fall. Once the weather pattern switches from mostly sunny days to almost perpetual overcast it becomes a bit harder to distinguish one day from another, especially from inside – and we don’t get outdoors as often as we used to.

Glancing out at the rain is not a very good measure of time for us because we have had twenty-four years here of rainy falls, winters, and springs, and twenty prior years of the same in Alaska before that. For us rain is not a useful measure of time passing. Now the seasonal autumn color change is another ticket. We are still in a prolonged transformation of yellows and rusts, and the oranges and reds finally came on strong this week. (See Patty's blog; button at the right) Many of the early colors have already fallen along the roadways, but the trees of color on our acre and a quarter are still in transition. The Japanese Maple is in its finest, the ornamentals – cherrys, crabapples, dogwoods – are well into their cling-tight rusts, the ginko is bright yellow as are the Lombardy Poplars, and the Zelcova Elm is converting it’s jillion leaves from green to pale yellow to light golden brown as they individually drop. The yard under any of these trees is covered, but the rain, ah yes, the rain prohibits any cleanup at present.

This week was above average for Betty in terms of general health and activity. The daily regimen of meals and medications, household routines and personal hygiene were much the same. The highlights were in the visits and varieties of entertainment. The Canasta Ladies came again to play cards and provide a lunch, several videos helped pass the hours, calls came from friends near and far, the steady stream of notes and “get well” messages continued, and among the finest hours was a visit by good friends from our Alaskan Years who stopped by as they headed north again to Juneau. Of course family stays in close touch and Patty’s brood came to share a weird DVD western whose main characters were hairy little critters including many reptiles and other venomous villains. Most importantly, we are still managing to avoid much use of the infamous “pink buckets” due to a good combination of anti-nausea pills.

On Thursday Betty again received her monthly intravenous infusion of a medication designed to hold what calcium remains in her system in her bones. This is not in any way considered curative, but it does seem to help in terms of allowing her to maintain limited mobility which allows her to move about the house and even take the occasional trip to church or out for a restaurant meal. We have noticed that, now that she has had three of these treatments, Betty is often able to stand up on her own from a sitting position, and perhaps in combination with the excellent Hospice care is part of the reason that she has been feeling better and able to be more active each day. I find her sorting out bookcases, boxes of pictures and notes, and paperwork piles of this and that. It’s good to see she feels up to doing anything and to see her mind busy at one task or another. If you stop by (please call ahead first) you might be drafted to help on whatever current jigsaw puzzle is in progress.

As always we are touched by the generous words and thoughtful deeds of family, friends, and folk from the sometimes distant past. Your being in touch gives us great pleasure and your extra efforts to express appreciation to Betty for some past kindness is also precious. We believe God is reminding us (in spite of the world’s take on such things) that in God’s sight it is more correct to say that “no good deed goes unrewarded”. These days are rich with blessings and we are enjoying them with thanksgiving.

PS: One interesting ongoing family saga involves a granddaughter who developed a personal colony of head lice. Whether these were an inevitable byproduct of beginning to attend a public school class after years of itch-free home schooling or a contribution collected from neighborhood buddies is not clear. Neither to school nor the neighbors seem very concerned. The remedies of chemical and natural treatments, vinegar washes, daily “nit-picking” and an extremely thorough cleaning and laundry of everything in their house has complicated life and tested everyone else’s patience, but in the midst of the turmoil, the little one seems to be the calmest of all of us.