This was written one February while I
was living in Charlotte NC and my aging parents were still in Opelika AL in the home where I grew up. My mother cared for my Dad at home until he died in
2007 then she moved to Wilkesboro NC where she enjoyed several
years of independence at Rose Glen Village. She is now living in Morningside of
Auburn where she is happy and well-cared-for. My Aunt Clara has been
institutionalized with Alzheimer’s disease for over ten years, now.
I see a lot
of family love in this memory…
Online and In the Pink
My Mom is now getting my old desktop computer
because I have a new laptop that moves with me like my dog. I hoped my parents would
find mental stimulation using the internet and a new, easy way to communicate.
It started simply enough. I brought her
the computer, printer, keyboard, speakers, wires, cables, microphone, and mouse and put it on the dining room
table because there was no other available space. I have since been working to get it
off the table and set-up in her bedroom. I got here Tuesday night and this is
Friday. In spite of my efforts to do something for her, she has ended up doing way too much. She is now taking a
nap.
First, she found an antique desk in her
basement which I cleaned thoroughly. Then I picked it up and muscled it around to
the front porch before we found termites. So, I wrestled it this time into
the trunk of my car and drove it back around to the basement where she found it, and while she called pest control to come check the house
for termites, I went to K-Mart and bought her a computer table.
Of course the table was not assembled,
and just removing it from the trunk of my car in the box proved impossible. So, I opened
it and moved it inside in pieces. Then, using the enclosed eight pages of instructions, we started putting it together. That was Wednesday, and now late afternoon, and she kept working while I went out to Bruno's and bought food and cooked supper.
After a surge of brain sugar, we got back to screwing parts together and
reading instructions which provided mental stimulation of the rarest kind.
Some of the parts were missing (flat
washers and spring washers) and it looked like a third of the screw holes
hadn't been drilled. (Imagine that!) With pieces and parts littered all around
her house, we crashed and went to bed.
I woke up eager to get back to my
project but we noticed a leak in the kitchen sink with water running out of the
cabinet onto the kitchen floor. We cut off the water and called a plumber
before getting back to the computer desk and putting together as much as we
could before buying parts.
Since my Mom was stuck waiting for the
plumber, she wanted me to take care of another chore: my Dad's watch from
Christmas didn't fit and he needed to go exchange it. He's on oxygen, so we
have to move slowly and things take longer. And, he wanted to pick up my Aunt
Clara so she could go and buy a watch with us. She was thrilled; and after we
got his watch at Wal-Mart, they wanted to get some lunch—Red Lobster lunch
because my Dad had been watching some savory advertisements on TV.
At Red Lobster, we had a patient and
spunky waiter who moved us to a better table right off. His only fault was that
he took our order too fast. As my Dad was eating, he complained that he didn't
remember seeing any shrimp or lobster on the menu and wondered why he had
ordered catfish at a place like this. Actually, it was because I ordered
blackened catfish and he said, "That sounds good. I'll have that too, only
fried," but he forgot.
He ate things he wasn't supposed to eat,
like three cheese biscuits and French fries and I knew I’d be in trouble with
my mom for that. Aunt Clara said the slaw was the best bowl of slaw she had
ever eaten. She cried because she was so happy we were together. You can see
why I couldn’t just take them straight home, so I took them with me to the car
wash where I spent all the quarters I had on entertainment. The Goo Goo Car
Wash had a great foaming brush. Pink foam! They loved it and after that,
everyone felt revived, including me, and I could finally take them home.
Well, when we got back, my mother had given up
on the plumber and was ready to go buy some bits for her never-before-used
Craftsman Automatic Screwdriver. It came with instructions which showed how to
use it as a drill, but we had to go to Sears to buy the drill bits.
There was no one obviously working at
Sears that day except a check-out lady, so I told her what we needed. She said,
“Okay, I’ll page someone."
Before long a young man came out of hiding
and we showed him what we had and told him what we needed. He shook his head
and said, “I’ll have to find someone else to help you with that. I barely know
my own job.”
The next man led us to a wall of drill bits
and kits and assured us that we could buy any size or shape on the rack because
all the parts there fit Craftsmen automatic screwdrivers no matter what.
“They're all made to work together,” he said. My mother started arguing,
nicely, because it looked to us like the round bits wouldn't fit. I asked if
they could be returned if they didn't work, and he assured me they could, so
wanting to get back to work, we headed to check out.
The check-out-lady, quite aggravated,
said, "You can't use these. You need hex bits, but I can't show you where
they are because I can’t leave the register."
When a third man came to help, he showed
us hex bits in expensive kits and converter sets. We asked him to open one to see if
the parts fit. Well, they didn't, so he opened a second expensive set and those
didn't fit either. He hunted for a third kit, which they were out of, but meanwhile, wandering the
aisle I found some hex bits in singles! The check-out lady nodded her approval when
we bought a couple of sizes for less than a dollar!
Sears sold washers too, but only by the
box. We needed two sets of two, so we went to the other side of town to Lowe’s and
using their diagrams found the four washers we needed to complete the project
and went home. Nearing suppertime on Thursday, we learned that the termite man
found no termites in the walls of the house, but the plumber never came. Having
no water, we skipped supper and attacked our project again. Already, our brain
activity had increased by leaps and bounds.
While I took the dog for a walk around
the block, my mother drilled holes in the desktop. When I got back and told her
she had drilled into the top and not the bottom, she said, “Well, you should
have come back sooner.”
Well, I turned it over, screwed
more holes and put it on right. We would now need some wood filler.
When I was ready to attach the shelf for the
keyboard on the underside of the desktop, I lay on my back under the desk with
the automatic screwdriver pointed upward and aligned the hole in the shelf
support with the drilled hole in the desktop. She held the part in place for me
and still lying on my back, I put in the screw. We were all set to finish until
I mentioned that I was about to screw up.
That's when we lost it. As we broke down
into a laughing hysteria that rendered us dysfunctional, all loose parts came
falling down. When she regained composure, Mama put in
a desperate plea to a second plumber who promised to come, and though I had been determined to get her an email address before we went to bed, we crashed and left it for this morning.
The second plumber fixed the sink while
I took Daddy to the grocery and to the bank. I'm about to cook and wash dishes
again, and while there are still printers and speakers to deal with, we might be
finished by Sunday. I'm feeling a little addled right now, incompetent, and
last but not to go unmentioned, OLD.
Mama’s got email, but no termites and no
leak, so I’m taking the dog for a ride. We’re going to the Goo Goo,
and I’m sure after that, I’ll be back in the pink.
