Caring for Dorothy

For almost a good month now, we have been involved with caring for Jeff’s 94 year old mother, Dorothy.

A little background on her is that she owns a condo in a 55+ co-op building (in Golden Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis) and has been there for the last 9 years since Jeff’s dad, Ed passed away 8 years ago on May 21.  Her overall health is good, but Dorothy lacks the strength in her legs for long periods of walking, not to mention the ill-fated hearing aids that never work properly, and her much needed drinking of water.   Need we say more?  Currently, when we return home in the Spring, Jeff makes sure that he is available to take his mother to her appointments, driving the 90 miles to her home from ours in western Wisconsin.  When we are away during the winter, his brother, Brian and his wife Jan (who is Kay’s sister and both are still working) take care of her needs when we are traveling. 

The saga started on June 13, when we drove to Minneapolis to see Dorothy.  As we always do when we are there, we remind Dorothy to have her grocery list ready so that we can do a food run for her and then help with any odd jobs that she needs done in her condo.  We always have a very nice lunch (either food we bring or her treat…..”Thanks, Ma!”)  before we start the trek through what seems like rush hour back to our home.  On this particular day we did have a second stop in Stillwater MN - a high school graduation party for a daughter of a good friend of Kay’s.   After getting on what we call the “slab” with all of the other crazy drivers around rush hour, we received a call from the coordinator of Dorothy’s senior building telling us that she had taken a fall in her bathroom and had a gash on her head.  So, at the first opportunity that Jeff could turn our vehicle around and head back we were headed back to Dorothy’s.  (Note: A similar fall in March where Brian and Jan had her recuperating at their home for three weeks.)

Fast forward to June 18 when Dorothy’s problems became more than she alone could handle, and therefore the reason why we could bring her to our home in Wisconsin to convalesce.  Again, the plan of attack is for her to get stronger by walking and drinking plenty of water.  It sounds pretty easy for us but has been quite the challenge for Dorothy, but she is making it slowly while she is with us.  Her love of the outdoors – to sit outside and enjoy the birds and flowers has been great medicine for the soul.  And right now, some of our prettiest flowers are in bloom.

Kay’s Flowers VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

As an added attraction for all of us this year we were able to observe a wren family (see above photo from June 25) before they took flight from the bird house in our back yard, and now to a “new” couple that have started to build a nest in the bird house on the front landing to the main entrance of our house – see below pictures.

So as the days went buy, Dorothy got stronger.  She enjoyed her reading while she was here with her lap mate, Chuck.

. . . and made sure that her pill supply was adequate.

Preparations for her return to her home came on July 10.  Kay got all of her belongings packed up for the trip to Golden Valley.  We also had arranged to meet with a retired RN who would be available to assist Dorothy when needed.  After getting her settled in, we did a spot check on her refrigerator discarding any old items and taking inventory on what we needed to pick up for her.  A trip to the grocery store and the traditional foods for a nice lunch before we headed home was had by all.   You could see that Dorothy was tired but home in her surroundings close to her plants and friends.  It was good for her and both of her sons to know that she was on the mend. 

As an added surprise when we got home, and one that we know that Dorothy will be excited about, is that another new wren family is working on the new house that we set out.  The neighborhood is going to the wrens!!

Hugs to all ~ Kay and Jeff