... last night after I went to bed, but before nodding off. I think I have to read myself to sleep, and will always have some printed matter in my hand when I am hopeful of catching some zzz. On the couch, or in the car (when Not Driving) or putting myself to bed much too early at night. When I know I have to be at work at 5 a.m., I set the alarm for four to be semi-civil by the time I get there.
My phone rang at about 9:45 last night: surprising that I had not crashed, but I will admit to a power nap when I got off work shortly after 2:00. I jumped up to answer the call. It was a friend who lives out in the country, in a very rural area east of town. She and I became acquainted when I started talking to her as she was shopping, a customer in the store where I work. We've met several times at a local eatery and had lunch and a most agreeable visit. Plus she invited me to come to her house out in the piney woods once, for lunch with her mom who lives nearby, still independent and spry at 93.
J. was calling me because she had spent the day with her mom in the local ER. A tedious and brutally frustrating experience for healthy people, so doubly so for anyone with medical problems seeking assistance. Her mom was having a hard time breathing, and struggling so to the point of exhaustion, she knew help was needed. After being at the ER all day on a weekend, probably surrounded by people who use that resource for primary care, the mom was admitted as a patient. Likely poked and prodded with multiple needles wanting numerous blood samples until she felt like she was completely drained dry.
J. wanted to go home at some point today and was unwilling to leave her 97-year-old mom alone for the time it would take to get some chores done. Her own set of health difficulties create the necessity for maintenance and routine care, something that needs to be addressed every day. Plus she cannot drive, so has to wait for her husband to get her where she needs to be. She asked me if I could come and sit with her mom, to give them an opportunity to drive about an hour to get home out in the hinterlands, do the necessary chores and get back into town. I had no plans for today - other than the profoundly unpleasant, undesirable chore of hiding all the stuff in the carport to be ready for the painters on the morrow - which I would have been delighted to avoid entirely.
So I spent my afternoon talking to J's mom, reading while she napped, helping her to the facilities, cutting up her pork chop at dinner, and raiding the vending machines. I took my computer, but lack the necessary tech. skills to get connected with the universe, so nearly finished my library book. I was a bit concerned that I might exhaust my limited supply of reading material and be forced to resort to back issues of trashy People magazine from 1998. Fortunately - that did not happen, and I was relieved of my responsibility around 6 p.m.
They came in looking refreshed - as a shower and a good meal can do. And hopefully a bit better prepared to spend another night in the most uncomfortable chair in the world, but at least with a toothbrush. I hope this venture will have a good outcome, and they will soon all be back at home in their country lives.
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