01-20-2023, 09:32 PM
Old Timer!!! Hello! I came on to this board just now & I see this! How are you doing?? Hoping your winter up there has not been too brutal this year.
LOTS has happened here. Too much to reiterate, so I'll try to hit the high points. I retired from my public school school psychologist job in June 2017. Pretty quickly, my parents needed me (I'm an only child), so I switched working to caring for them. Father passed away not too long before COVID hit (he didn't die from COVID, though). As Mother was developing dementia, I struggled to care for her & still run my household, so ended-up needing to move her into assisted living. Then COVID hit & their place was locked-down. I worked on going-through, packing, closing-down & selling what needed to be sold over the next 6 months & sold their place. I visited with her using my lawn chair at her window with us talking on the phone while looking at each other, FaceTimed with her, had phone conversations with her & wrote her letters. Eventually things loosened-up & I was able to take her out to dr appts or lunches (with masks). Then the residents didn't have to mask-up around each other, but we visitors still masked, except I could take it off while visiting her in her room. This past October, she aspirated on her food & developed aspiration pneumonia, & never recovered; she was 95. She was in the ICU, then entered a hospice home, where I stayed with her until she took her final breaths. Then we had to let Tico, our beloved 17 year-old dog, go on December 30th. Loss upon loss upon loss . Still processing all that.
On the positive side, Don & I still have our 15 year-old dog, Dexter, who's drinking in all the attention! We're building a house on some land my parents bought back in 1958.
There's more, but that's enough to digest now.
I wish you a good 2023. I'll come back on to read more of your posts to try to catch-up with you, given my lengthy absence. Take care, OT!
LOTS has happened here. Too much to reiterate, so I'll try to hit the high points. I retired from my public school school psychologist job in June 2017. Pretty quickly, my parents needed me (I'm an only child), so I switched working to caring for them. Father passed away not too long before COVID hit (he didn't die from COVID, though). As Mother was developing dementia, I struggled to care for her & still run my household, so ended-up needing to move her into assisted living. Then COVID hit & their place was locked-down. I worked on going-through, packing, closing-down & selling what needed to be sold over the next 6 months & sold their place. I visited with her using my lawn chair at her window with us talking on the phone while looking at each other, FaceTimed with her, had phone conversations with her & wrote her letters. Eventually things loosened-up & I was able to take her out to dr appts or lunches (with masks). Then the residents didn't have to mask-up around each other, but we visitors still masked, except I could take it off while visiting her in her room. This past October, she aspirated on her food & developed aspiration pneumonia, & never recovered; she was 95. She was in the ICU, then entered a hospice home, where I stayed with her until she took her final breaths. Then we had to let Tico, our beloved 17 year-old dog, go on December 30th. Loss upon loss upon loss . Still processing all that.
On the positive side, Don & I still have our 15 year-old dog, Dexter, who's drinking in all the attention! We're building a house on some land my parents bought back in 1958.
There's more, but that's enough to digest now.
I wish you a good 2023. I'll come back on to read more of your posts to try to catch-up with you, given my lengthy absence. Take care, OT!