Tomorrow I leave my husband and 4 dogs to return to my hometown in Arkansas for a few days. In March I moved my parents to a retirement center in Dallas, because my mom's Alzheimer's is progressing and my dad is in enough denial about the whole situation that he wasn't taking care of things. Actually, since they've been here and I see them every other day, I'm starting to wonder if he's got some dementia.
Anyway, they are in an independent living apartment at the Christian Care Center, a terrific facility that also provides assisted living, Alzheimer care, and on-site medical care as the person's health deteriorates. I think they call them Continuing Care programs. Now they are only 20 minutes away and I have seen them more in the past few weeks than I did for years when they lived in Arkansas!
It's added a lot to my responsibilities and stress because I'm an only child and I'm taking care of all of their finances, doctor appointments, bills, etc. But now we know all of this is getting done and my husband has been wonderful about how much time this has taken me. (He's also my boss, so more on this later :).)
So I'm going back to Arkansas to inventory the things they did not bring with them to the retirement center. Or to be more clear, the things I chose not to bring to the retirement center. As their daughter, I'm horribly worried that there is some small item that has huge sentimental value to my parents that will be auctioned off to who knows where, and I'll always have it on my neurotic conscious! And as I just mentioned, we're going to auction what's left on Friday.
I can't stay for the actual auction because my daughter, aka "Sweet Pea", is coming to visit and we're going to immerse ourselves in wedding planning (hers) and visiting friends with babies (mine). And it's probably a good thing that I won't be watching my childhood memories being sold, one-by-one, to utter strangers.
But I need to look over everything one more time to make sure there's not that one item that I think mom or dad will long for in the future. I'm setting myself up for failure, aren't I?
The highlight of this quick, turnaround trip will be if I can convince ANYONE to eat catfish with me. My white-trash, Arkansas roots demand that I eat catfish as often as possible, and definitely when I'm in the state! And of course, I must find an excuse to go to Walmart. I love people-watching at Walmart with a passion and dreamed of creating a coffee-table book filled with the strangers and their half-witted offspring that I can gaze upon each time I visit my hometown....but the geniuses at peopleofwalmart.com beat me to it. And I haven't been able to figure out how to take a picture without the person knowing. Because even though I'm laughing like a hyena on the inside, I wouldn't dare be rude on the outside! Sheesh.
Six hour drive tomorrow, then six hours back on Thursday or Friday. Then let the girls weekend begin!!
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