Dad moved into his room at the care home on October 7th. It is the only care home there and he is currently on the supported living side. There is staff there from 7am to 11pm and they are in charge of his medication but other than that he can sign himself in and out whenever he wants. My brother and his family live there. Both their boys play hockey and Dad loves to watch them play and understandably did not want to be placed in a home an hour or more away where he wouldn't be able to go to practices and games. I flew there at the end of August for a family meeting at the hospital because the doctor wanted a pow wow with everyone involved so we could try and figure out what Dad's options were. While waiting to board my flight home I decided to give it all to God and let Him take care of things. I needed to pull back from it all. Three days later we found out that there was a spot opening up at the care home.
We went there for Thanksgiving and it was hard. Dad is not happy to be at the care home and I really don't blame him. He's 62. Pretty much everyone else there is over 75. It's a really nice facility and there is a chapel on site that you don't even have to walk outside to get to. There are lots of activities/events planned and tonnes of things to do there. The resident manager is Christian and one of the nicest people I've ever talked to. You can tell that she genuinely loves her job and it is her goal to make everyone's quality of life the best it can possibly be for the stage they are at in their life. We got in around 9pm on Friday and Dad wanted me and the girls to come down for a visit so we did. And it was not good. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best of decisions to go there for Thanksgiving at all - I think we should've waited until Dad had been in the care home longer. I wonder if us being there actually made things harder for him. We got in the van to head back to my Mom's and my youngest daughter started crying while the other was quiet. Grandpa was being different and acting not nice. When we got back to Mom's about an hour later I wanted to pack up the van and head home. I have talked to Dad since and he said that it was never his intent to scare the girls and I completely reassured him that I know that. I told him that he has to keep in mind that the girls are older now and pick up on attitudes, moods and the blatantly sarcastic happy way you were talking about things when giving them a tour of the place. Both my girl's are pretty astute, the younger in particular is quite sensitive about other people's feelings.
The rest of the weekend was pretty good. It was so nice to see my brother and his family - both their boys play hockey. We got to see both of them play hockey and both of them scored a goal. My husband and I went to Church on Sunday morning and they had a lunch buffet there afterwards so we stayed for that. Church was good - worship was amazing. We've been there twice now and really enjoyed it. Sunday afternoon Mom and I went shopping with my oldest daughter. I had an appointment at the Apple Store to get my phone checked out (and ended up getting a new phone) and then we headed to Ikea. Retail therapy is always good. My sister-in-law's parents were in town and she made turkey dinner for all of us (it was amazing) and after supper we all headed out for a walk to see the "grandfather" tree (which reminds me of the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter) and we even got a family picture! First one since my brother and his wife were married 13 years ago and at that point only the girls were around! Dad put on his happy face and the kids didn't know any different... but we did. I noticed Dad was a bit slower walking, more cautious - his balance seemed off and he was was limping a bit.
A few of you have replied to the initial email or have spoken with me since I sent out about the blog and I really want you to know how much that means to me. I have such an amazing group of friends and you need to know that having a "group" of friends in itself is amazing to me... having a group of friends supporting, praying and loving me is beyond amazing. So thank you so much for your thoughts and kind words, the prayers - everything. I really, really appreciate it.
