March 2002

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Sometimes I hate it when anniversaries fall on the same day of the week as did the original event. This is the year that anniversaries of all the events surrounding the last few weeks of my mother's life hit the same days of the week.

And today's anniversary is of the third and final stroke. It's funny that the main thing I remember about that Sunday back in 1996, besides all the information coming about the stroke itself, is that I was cleaning the bathtub when the phone rang. It was one of the staff members at the rest home where Mother was living. The staff member was calling to let me know the rest home staff had determined Mother needed to go to the hospital and had taken her.

At the time, the staff member thought Mother had caught a really bad cold. The main symptom was trouble breathing normally. Actually, the stroke was happening at that point. The right-side paralysis hadn't set in.

There had been another couple of instances when Mother had had to go to the hospital from the rest home. None (including this one) were the sort where an ambulance was required, and the usual reason was a medication reaction. A member of the rest home staff would put Mother in the car and transport her. The usual drill was that they would call me and I would meet the staff person in the emergency department, so that any paperwork could be handed over to me. It was then mine to wait till she was ready to come back to the rest home, and bring her. Usually it was several hours.

But since this one happened at night, and since we thought she was going to emerge fairly rapidly with some super strength cough syrup, the staff member who accompanied Mother just planned to stay. The staff knew I didn't drive at night if at all possible, so they told me not to worry about the transportation back to the home; they were happy to wait. And if it turned out I was needed, not a problem since, after all, I was only a couple of miles away.

So I stayed here, and finished cleaning the bathtub. It made sense at the time.

Every time since that night when I've used that bathtub cleaner, I've thought, fleetingly, of that phone call and subsequent events.

You can be sure I did not use it tonight.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Beth has started a ring of journallers who plan to update daily for the rest of Lent. The ring is called "Saving Kymm's Soul," in honor of Kymm's pledge to give up reading journals for Lent. She'll need a handy list of archives to search as she celebrates Easter, and we thought we'd help her out. The list of ring members is here.