| It was a strange Christmas this year. It was almost a non-Christmas. Zoe has been in a lot of pain these past weeks. Not only her fibromyalgia but also her carpal tunnel. Coupled with the ups and downs of her mother's health, we got way behind. Kids and friends were to come over Christmas eve. By Saturday night it was clear that packages weren't going to be wrapped much less the house cleaned up for guests. We were going to go down to visit Gerry on Sunday but we were exhausted and ended up going down Monday. I did some cooking for Gerry Sunday night and did the rest of the cooking Monday. We made it down to Western State Hospital at 5:30. Gerry was looking some better but her speech is getting worse. She had been speaking largely in random words but now, instead of words, much was just sounds that she thought were words. But, even though her language was mostly not intelligible, her facial expressions were and she was teasing and enjoying herself with some crying and saying how much she loved us. She was happy we were there. On the way back from Tacoma we stopped and visited my Mom. It was sort of last minute. We waited until the visit with Gerry was over to gage how good Zoe was doing. We called my mom while we were still with Gerry to let her know we were coming. We had brought a jacket to give her and she was so happy to see us. She has had a lot of hip pain lately. It was good seeing both moms on Christmas eve and making them both happy. We got home 2 minutes into Christmas day. Zoe was depressed about our lack of Christmas. We didn't even get a Christmas tree up. We exchanged gifts. I gave her a print.
It's a scan of Gerry's and Zoes hands. It was done over two years ago, maybe three years ago, and Zoe had completely forgotten about it. It was when Gerry was living with us after she no longer could live alone and before she went to live in a care facility. I did the scan but it was Zoe's idea to do a mother-daughter hands picture and she did the arranging. It was the right picture at the right time. It brought back a lot for Zoe and reminded us both that this time in our life is for our mothers. |
