Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2006. That weekend we took Mattie to Pennsylvania, to visit Dutch Wonderland. On the way, we stopped at an incredible aquarium in New Jersey. I am so glad I had Mattie and Peter stop for a photo as I thought it was neat to be in one state and see another state across the water!
Quote of the day: Veterans are a symbol of what makes our nation great, and we must never forget all they have done to ensure our freedom. ~ Rodney Frelinghuysen
Mattie created these flowers when he was in the hospital! I liked them so much that I kept them in a safe place. About five years after Mattie died, I began cleaning and sorting through things. It was at that point that I went to AC Moore and bought collage paper as a backdrop for the flowers. Since that point, these flowers have always hung in one of our kitchens.
This is the creation that fell! The flower says.... Mattie... on it. Can you see why I thought this maybe a sign? Logically it fell most likely because of the change in humidity. We did not hang the flowers using a nail, but I wanted to use velcro designed for frames so that we did not put nails in the wall. Needless to say, when Peter gets back home, we will have to change the frames and put nails in the wall because I don't want this to happen again.
There are many Mattie creations in our kitchen. This is another collage I made years ago. Again, this was an artistic creation designed in the hospital. Not with his art therapists, but with a resident artist named Liz, who came to visit the children on a regular basis in the hospital.
Peter sent me a photo of a bunny in his mom's garden. Mattie and I would have appreciated this sighting! Peter NOT so much. Of course if Sunny were there, this bunny would of had a run for his money!
In addition to caring for my parents, Sunny hasn't been himself for the last two days. He vomited two days ago and then has been refusing food. I started him on a stronger anti-nausea med and an anti-diarrheal. I even cooked him scrambled eggs this morning and that went down right away. So I am hoping Sunny is turning a corner. But I am also aware of the fact that Sunny misses our time together and I can see that Sunny doesn't have the same spirit in him that he once did. This of course saddens and frustrates me that I can't do more.
With regard to my mom, I truly DO NOT care that her scans showed no neurological issues. That maybe so, but clinically I see what I see and I am experiencing what I experience. She has a funny gait. She walks with her feet separated by a foot and a half, and shuffles along. If this were the only issue I faced with her, I could manage. But my mom is a bundle. Not unlike my dad, her memory is failing. She loses track of days, forgets what we did the day before, and I find I have to constantly repeat what I say, as she will ask me the same question over and over again. To me her decline in one year's time is dramatic. I always wonder if this decline would have happened to her anyway, or is the decline a result of having cared for my dad as well as relocating her from California, a place she called home for over 30 years? I do not have the answer, but these are the questions that roll around in my mind.
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