A Good Day With Lillian!

It is with a happy heart that I sit here tonight to recount my day.

We arrived at the nursing home around 1:30 fully expecting to spend the whole afternoon.

I arrived with a plate of spice cake with brown sugar frosting and pumpkin muffins for the nurses.

This was my first stop and I inquired about Lillian. I thought it was good to let them know we are paying attention and realize what a stressful situation Lillian is in.

Mother was her roommate for more than a year and towards the end she was so mean to Lillian they had to move Mother to another room. After several months, they moved a new roommate in with Lillian and she didn't stay very long. Not even a week but it was not because they didn't get along. The lady wanted to go back to her old room and so they let her. Then for months Lillian had no roommate and that was just fine with everyone. Then this lady - Betty - moved in with a lot of furniture and debris.

She yells at imaginary people and gets angry if Lillian turns the TV on.

Lillian is not hard to get along with. She is kind and long suffering. No one is perfect but Lillian is not the problem here. So.....when the nurse told me that Lillian could not get along with any of her roommates - I had to speak up and remind her that my mother had been her roommate and we have been around and know that it's not Lillian who can't get along with people.

It's best to stay nice and not get any one's dander up so I was very careful and I thanked them for all they do and assured them we would do our best to cheer Lillian up.

I dress up when we visit the nursing home. Back when I taught children in Sunday School, I always wore my best. Fur coat ( I had a white mink jacket back then that was beautiful!) and nice clothes. Jewelry and perfume.  By dressing up I think the kids knew how special they were to me. The residents at the nursing home deserve to be treated special and I do my part by dressing up. Besides - it makes ME feel better when I look nice. 

Louis Dean set up his music in the common living room and I went in to see Lillian.

She was in bed but when she saw me, she got up and gave me the biggest hug.

We sat side by side talking for a good little while.

I checked her fridge to see if she had eaten the food I had left the last time I was there.

She still had a frozen shrimp cocktail ring so I took it out and ran warm water over it and left it to thaw while we went down to hear some music.

Louis Dean started telling her some of his stories and she was laughing and smiling and having a good time! I was so happy!

Louis Dean had a ball today!!

He found a French harp player!

David is a resident there on hospice and he loves music!

He didn't have his French harps at the home with him but he sang along on some of the songs.

Lillian loved listening to them!

We took a break and I wheeled her back to the room where we ate some of that shrimp cocktail. 

She dearly loves that!

 I needed to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things to restock her fridge. Louis Dean wanted to go to a music shop and buy David some French harps (harmonicas). I told them we would be gone about an hour and off we went.

I stopped at Aldi on Hulen then we went on down to the Guitar Center.

While Louis Dean was in there, I shopped Tuesday Morning and found some good coffee and tea.

By the time we got back they were serving dinning in the dining room.

David wanted him to set up his music in there. We were like dinner entertainment. 

Louis Dean loves nothing better in this whole wide world than an audience and tonight he had one!

David played the French harp and Louis Dean sparkled and shined!

So did Lillian.

We ended the music set with a duet....

I am not a singer by any stretch of the imagination but we do have fun with this song!

It was a great way to close out the music.

Roberta's room was empty when we arrived today but we met her daughter in the dining room and she said Roberta had just been released and was back.

Her daughter said that Roberta wanted to see us so after we told Lillian goodbye, we went down there. We had visited for a few minutes when Lillian came in.

This was the sweetest scene.

Two gracious ladies......

tears sprang up in my eyes seeing them together like this.

It was hard to leave. 

But we had been there over 5 hours and we still had to go to the gym and walk before going home.

The update regarding Lillian's situation is this.....

Mark - the social worker, and Virginia - the administrator - came in to talk to her and said they would come back after her 'company' left. We assured them this would be a good time to talk because we were good friends with Lillian. Bottom line - they are moving both Lillian and Betty.

Change is a good thing and it is best to roll with it. Everything changes so we must accept that.

Lillian is now actually excited about going to a new room.

I teased her and said maybe she would get one that you didn't have to hold the toilet handle down the whole time for the commode to flush! She laughed and laughed!

Mark told me they would be moving this week. 

I assured Lillian we will be back next Thursday after we come home from the ranch and I will fluff up and do whatever needs to be done to make her new room the way she wants it.

Thank you all for the great suggestions about earphones and such.

Louis Dean is going to get some before we come back.

They will come in handy no matter what room she's in or who her new roommate is.

We found out that her daughter cut the cell phone off because she can't afford it.

A granddaughter said she would get her one. If that doesn't happen in the near future, we may just add her to our phone plan.

So that's my  happy ending tonight!!

I'll leave you with this......

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This should say the same week!

It was 23 degrees when we woke up this morning!