An Azalea for Mom

The azaleas are out in North Florida, and this bush at my mom's retirement center just happens to have flowers the exact shade of pink as the ones we had at our house when I was growing up. When my brother and I went to visit Mom yesterday, I picked one of them and we tucked it behind her ear as we rolled her around the property in her wheelchair. She seemed to get a kick out of that. She laughed and laughed, especially when we took her picture and showed it to her.

That was actually our second visit of the day. The first time, we went in the morning and she was still in bed. She had a scratch and a new bruise on her forehead, and the staff explained that she had just fallen out of her chair and hit her head on the doorframe. It's not common for her to fall like that, and in fact they were about to call us to tell us about it. We sat with her a while and she laughed in bed (nothing seems to faze her much), and she held my hand and just stared and stared at it. She seems fascinated with hands and fingers, and would laugh when I opened and closed them. But we didn't try to get her up and around. We decided to come back in the afternoon.

I could not get her to speak much. If I asked her a question she might nod or shake her head, and she attempted to say "yes" at one point. And she said "Oh, God" (a favorite phrase) after one of her laughing spells. But that was it. I think she knows who we are, but it's hard to tell. She'd probably be just as goofy and jovial with anyone.

Here's a little video showing a neighborhood on the St. John's River where my brother and I parked when we went to lunch at the nearby European Street deli. And then it shows me playing with his dog, Snoop. Again, don't tell Olga about my canine infidelity.

Lunch at the deli was funny. They had a pimento & cheese sandwich with ham on the menu. It reminded me of the pimento & cheese sandwiches my grandmother used to make, so I ordered it, but asked them to hold the ham. (We never put ham on our pimento & cheese!) The waiter was completely flummoxed by this request. He just couldn't seem to get his head around me not wanting meat on my sandwich. "It will be the same price," he warned. I said that was fine, just give me extra pimento and cheese. Well, they did and it all worked out but I think I made his head explode.

This car was parked outside my mom's retirement center. Not very comforting. And also, WHY?

Anyway, aside from visiting mom, it was a day for errands. We went to an antique store to ask about selling my grandmother's Wedgewood china, a huge set that neither of us want, as well as some of her mahogany furniture. And we went to the grocery store, where I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that read, "Be the person your dog thinks you are."

This shop was across the street from the grocery store. BEST NAME EVER!