Christmas redux

Mom changed her mind about coming to our house for Christmas. I just called her up and reassured her that I could make it to her place ok and that she could bring her bag with her strongbox. It has all her important papers and for some reason she has to bring it to the house every Christmas. So...I made it all normal for her and she was ready to go when I arrived around 1pm.

We drove to the cemetary first so she could see her Mother's grave. We couldn't make it all the way to the grave because the roads had not been plowed in the cemetary. I drove as close as I could, then got out and ran up the hill a little bit to where the grave is located. I had been there the day before and hiked in from the street and miraculously found the grave. I went to the cherry tree, then turned a bit to sight off the water faucet and garbage can and within about 30 seconds have uncovered the grave. So..long story short, I held up the wreath that I had purchased the day before so Mom could see it, then ran back to the car. We had to back down the road to get out of the cemetary...Mom crying the whole way. She was both upset and nervous because of the driving conditions. I got us out of there...bless my Subaru Forester, and then drove to the house. The last two blocks were the worst, but we finally arrived around 2pm.

As soon as we arrived, Pamela and I went into full court press to get Mom inside. She had to go to the bathroom right away, so I got the transport chair and we whisked into the downstairs bathroom. It became clear right away that I was dealing with an accident...so I got some of those disposable washclothes and helped Mom change into some clean underpants. She was resistant to changing at first, but I reassured her that we were the same size and that it would be fine. After we got everything back together, she sat in the transport chair, looked at me, laughed out loud and said "Merry Christmas". It was the funniest and most tender moment of the day for me. Times change, roles change....and it all works out.

Mom was hungry...and Pamela had everything ready, so we sat down right away for a lovely Christmas lunch - ham, mashed pototes, sweet potatoes with pecans, mashed turnips, green beans, little cheesecakes, and lovely petite Buche de Noel. After dinner I showed Mom all the old Christmas pictures with Santa that stretched from 1954 until the early 1960's. She enjoyed that quite a bit.

Then onto the presents...we had gone a little overboard with Mom's gifts, but she enjoyed everything...the new socks, the eye mask, the hat, the pajamas, the soft pad for her bed, the Frangos, the removable handle for her bathtub, and the handmade fabric bag. Milo sat with Mom most of the time she was opening her presents..leaning on her...which she seemed to enjoy. He is a very loving dog.

Before we left, she wanted to visit my Dad's ashes in my room. I had a white poinsettia on the top of my bookcase for Christmas. She looked at each photo and sobbed. I understand her need to do this every year. It is part of her mourning process. Her life will never be the same without my Dad.

It was getting dark by this time..so we started back to her apartment by 4pm. She had a good meal and a good time. We made it through another Christmas.