Last move

I spent all of yesterday helping Stan pack his mom's belongings.  After two months in the hospital, Susie is transferring to an assisted living community.  She won't be coming home to the stack of books that she kept next to her recliner, won't need the article she'd clipped from the Wall Street Journal, won't use the beige satin sheets she'd just ordered from the Company Store.

We bought two new sets of extra-long twin sheets to fit the hospital-type bed we had ordered for her new room.  The salesman at the medical supply store was helpful who gave us a crash course on wheel chairs and commode transfer frames, explained the intricacies of medicare reimbursement.  We picked the best mattress we could find, hoping it would make a difference.

We tagged Susie's furniture with post-it notes for the movers: her blue recliner wth the matchin pillows, the two night tables, the dining room chair with the back pillow.  We measured the card table to see how it would fit into her room and selected family pictures for the walls.  We wrapped up the tile that reads 'Never do today what you can postpone until tomorrow' and stuck the pencil mug in a box between pillows.  And there was the funny business of trying to remember which housedresses we'd seen her in, which shoes, which twin sets. 

- "Do you think she'll need notecards?" Stan asked. 

- "We can always come back for it if she does."

And for the begonia on the window sill and perhaps the pink bathrobe in the closet.  We double-checked the content of the boxes against the list that the retirement home had provided: blankets, sheets, towels, etc... This was like sending our children to camp or college, minus the prospect of an exciting return home.

Stan called me today to tell me he'd heard from his brother John who'd been taking care of Susie while we were packing. 

- "John says she's cranky," he said. 

- "I would too if I were in her shoes."

- "I know."

- "How's the new room?"

- "It's looking good.  I hung the pictures and the new sheets fit the bed."

- "How about the quilt?"

- "It looks awesome."

We bought one with embroidered blue flowers.  Blue is Susie's favorite color.