Comfort zone:

They say that it is good to be out of one’s comfort zone. I’m willing to risk getting back into it for just a little while.

The past couple of weeks… make that months have pegged the discomfort needle to the maximum setting: numb.  It started with planning for a trip back east for Mom’s 90th birthday whilst hoping that my wife, Joy would be able to attend. Her hospitalization, subsequent acquisition of the flu and slow recovery prevented that from happening. Some good came out of it, as I was able to stay at my mother’s apartment before and after the party. We got to talk more than we would have, had I stayed in a hotel.

Shortly after I arrived at Mom’s, she told me, “I’m in a real fix. I don’ t know what is going to happen to me.”  Since she got back from her most recent hospital stay, she couldn’t walk. “One day I was walking, and the next, I couldn’t,” she explained. Cheryl, a dear friend of the family was staying with her day and night as she promised she would do. We changed the subject to her party scheduled for the next day.

Oasis of comfort – the 90th birthday party.

Everyone had a great time at the party. Mom’s determination to have her party paid off. Friends and relatives were so happy to see each other and of course Mom. She was equally delighted.

Discomfort continued:

The night before I left to return to California, Mom had a rough night. I heard her call, “Help me! Help me!” from the couch in the other room. She had a headache and wanted a tylenol. I gave her one and helped arrange her covers. She felt cold to the touch. From the next room I could hear her say, “I want my blanket, I got my blanket.” repeatedly. I couldn’t help her the next time she called. She wanted more tylenol because she still had a headache, but there wasn’t enough time since her first dose. I tried the best I could to help her feel better.

When Cheryl arrived in the morning, Mom was still feeling bad. As I was leaving to catch my flight Cheryl called the nurse to have Mom checked out.

Fast forward past death, burial and arrangements…

Upon arrival home, the flu I must have gotten somewhere in the frozen tundra of New Jersey, went viral. Which brings me to my current state.

Except today is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.  I looked in the back yard, and remembered something Mom used to say at the beginning of spring:

“The sky is blue, the grass is riz, I wonder where the flowers is.”

Here they are Mom.

I’m thinking about you.