What is that saying? “Make plans, God laughs.”
April 15th at 9:36 PM while I was babysitting Arlo, my new grandson, I received a voicemail from an unknown caller in Florida. The caller was slurring her words, so much that I could barely understand her… well, that caller was my mother!
She was playing doubles ping-pong and went for a shot but instead tripped and landed on the floor breaking her hip, wrist, and elbow. We found out later, that she also lost a large filling in her tooth. I quickly found a flight to Florida and left Sunday morning just as Mom went into surgery to fix her hip.
I arrived late Sunday night. She was still groggy from the surgery, but the hip was fixed with 3 titanium screws and the hope was it would heal well.
We spent the next 4 days in the hospital with Mom getting PT daily. Finally, they decided to move her to a rehabilitation center on Thursday night at around midnight! Crazy moving an 81-year-old woman in the middle of the night. Due to problems as they were moving her, we didn’t arrive at the rehab center until 2 a.m. and it was less than a mile down the road from the hospital. To boot, she was moving into a room with a roommate – the poor roommate was awakened by our arrival and all the traffic due to our checking in.
By 8 am Friday morning the administration was already in Mom’s room. Mom and I were exhausted and found it difficult to absorb all the information they were communicating. Rehab did not go well. The night staff were less than adequate and the third night there the attendant dropped mom on the toilet causing further injury to her hip and thigh. Needless to say, I decided to “check her out” of rehab just as fast as I could and moved her home where we were both more comfortable.
I had watched how the attendant moved Mom from the bed to the chair etc so I knew the skill and had been practicing it while she was still in the rehab facility. I had ordered all the hospital equipment for the apartment, so we were all set. Physical and occupational therapy came into her place and I made sure we did the pool every morning. We also filled time with little road trips to the beach, cards with the “girls”, etc. After 2 months we were cleared by the orthopedist to fly to PA so she could further heal at the cabin on Pine Creek.
While I was tending to Mom, Stew’s plans in PA fell apart… the PigHill productions took a nasty turn in that they were not paying the crew. Finally, after 2 weeks the crew talked to the producers about the lack of pay – the producers fired the entire crew!! Stew included!
At about this same time, our daughter Alyssa’s husband, Matt, suffered a back injury and had to have emergency surgery that put him down for a few months. With the new baby, Matt being out of commission caused great hardship, so Stew, now free, went to their aid. He spent most of May and the beginning of June helping them out. I guess things happen for a reason.
Mom and I finally flew up to PA in mid-June and I was able to go to Erie with Stew and help Alyssa and Matt. Mostly I got to spend time with Arlo!! But I also got to see Erie friends as well.
Mom enjoyed her time at Pine Creek. She was able to visit with many friends and relatives while there. Arlo made his first trip to the cabin at the end of June. Mom and Aunt Lynne were thrilled to finally get to meet Arlo in person.
I took Mom back to Florida in mid-July and got her settled in her apartment so I could return to Pine Creek to be with Stew. We spent the remainder of July and August seeing Cole, riding bikes on the bike trail, and visits to Erie to see Mary, Alyssa, Matt and (of course) Arlo!
We also spent time planning our next adventure…
