A Great Day!

We had a wonderful day today – thanks be to God! Mom and Dad were both rested and Dad was much more alert and able to participate in conversation. I dared bring up “the elephant in the room,” (see previous post) and Dad agreed to a meeting with their financial advisor to discuss some changes in their investment strategy.

I prepared for this dialogue by working up a rough budget to demonstrate that in most months they are spending more than their fixed income. Though it hasn’t been a problem yet, they can’t go on like this forever. And the deficit will only get worse as their need for home health assistance increases. This is only the toe of the elephant, but you can only eat it one bite at a time.

There was a tense moment in the morning when Dad observed me washing sheets I had brought down from the apartment where I’m staying. He told Mom that he thought I was washing the sheets and getting ready to leave town. Mom told me there was “a rumor going around…” I assured both of them that I just wanted clean sheets and that I had no intention of leaving anytime soon.

All this week Mom has been training me to do things “her way” – things I’ve been doing “wrong” my whole adult life! I’ve learned how to make coffee, do the laundry, and fill the dishwasher – her way. I’ve learned which knife goes in the plain cream cheese and which goes in the salmon cream cheese to spread on bagels. I’ve learned how full to fill their juice glasses, and what proportion of cranberry and orange juice they like at lunchtime. I was doing so well, Mom announced she was giving me a promotion (no raise, though). Then today I blew it (can’t remember exactly what I did wrong) and she said she was demoting me!

At dinner I shared some funny emails I’d received and we all had a lot of laughs. I’m learning to have goals and a plan for the day but to also live in the moment. I’m getting a feel for when I need to go with their flow and when I need to push them a bit to stay on task.

Tomorrow I have the day off!

Sue