Chinese New Year – 2019

My DH and I attended mom’s AL community’s third Chinese New Year’s celebration this evening. We arrived a few minutes after the Lion Dance started. Mom was sitting front and center with a friend. The Activities Director greeted us with a hug and asked if we wanted a drink. My DH accepted her offer and took an available seat a ways behind mom, as there were nothing available next to mom. I popped up to mom’s room.

My mission was simple: remove excessive old magazine and daily community activity sheets, unpack subscription cat food boxes and remove the boxes, triage the accumulation of paper on the kitchen counter, and remove the two Island bank checks from the locked drawer in her bathroom. Everything went well except the lock has been changed on her locked bathroom drawer. I’ve opened it before. The key I have no longer works. I can probably back into the check numbers via records… I need to either have them in my possession, or stop payment on them. Granted, she hasn’t tried to used them in the last two years, but these are the things that keep me up at night… Having worked quickly, my magazine editing was based more on how deep they were in the piles rather than actually going through each publication and making a 3-month cut. Anything helps cull the disarray.

After spiriting two flat boxes of recycle back the car I rejoined the festivities. We weren’t able to join mom until the program was over. She was glad to see us. Overall we spent about 30-minutes with her. She was in good form. It was really wonderful to see her interact with other residents. Many expressed concern that she was using a cane (knee). One lady asked mom if she’d like to use her walker to use the restroom. These folks have each other’s backs!

This evening, short as it was, is likely the easiest time I/we have spent with mom in years. There was zero strife. When we greeted the GM, and he told us he was transferring to a different community, mom said, in front of God and everyone, “I admit, I’m gonna miss you!” Recall at the community Thanksgiving dinner the GM was so undeservingly vilified to us by my mother that we left. I think the meds are working.