This morning, Mom came into my room looking all pretty and asked if I’d go to church with her. When I told her that today was Tuesday, she couldn’t believe it!

I went over to Dad’s house around 11:00 and Elaine told me that she had not bothered having Dad walk down the hall to the family room today. She took him in his wheelchair. He was sitting on the couch with his bed table. She left to run some errands and Dad slept most of the time she was gone, so I sat and checked my emails. I do so enjoy getting all your comments! When Elaine returned, I told her that Jim, the hearing aid doctor, hadn’t called me back yet and I asked for the phone number again so that I could put it in my phone and call him later. Then the aide came to give Dad a bath and I took that as my cue to leave.

When I got back to Mom’s house, she had a friend over. Laura has been coming over about once a week for several years to play Scrabble with Mom. Mom was looking forward to the three of us playing together. We were in the middle of playing when the hospice social worker called me.

I had called hospice in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday because there was no one else to talk to and I was having a hard night. The hospice nurse on duty had said she’d have the social worker call, so this was that call. I told the social worker that when I had called on Saturday, I was depressed and feeling like I was going to be homeless when my sister comes up for spring break, but that since then, I’ve decided to fly back to Tucson, so I’m OK. I did tell her that I’m concerned for Elaine after my sister leaves and she doesn’t have anyone to sit with Dad if she needs to run to the store or something. The social worker and I talked out some ideas of sources for Elaine.

Mom, Laura, and I resumed our Scrabble game when I got off the phone. Laura won the first game and Mom won the second one, but we were all fairly well-matched, so I didn’t lose by much on either game.

Laura left and it was still midafternoon, so Mom and I pulled out a new jigsaw puzzle and started putting it together. While putting the puzzle together, Jim from Miracle-Ear returned my call. I told him that I had called Power Pay yesterday and they said that the loan had been paid in full to Miracle-Ear, so if there was going to be any way to stop the payments, it would have to be through Jim’s office. He agreed that he had been paid in full for Dad’s hearing aids, but that Dad had a month to return them for cash back and he didn’t. I pointed out that this is an extenuating experience and he said that in his line of business, a lot of his patients end up on hospice or die. He said that if Elaine had given him a chance to speak when she laid into him yesterday, he would have told her that he would be willing to write up a description of the hearing aids that she could use to sell them on eBay or Facebook Marketplace or something. As it is, apparently Elaine put the fear of God in him yesterday and he doesn’t want to have to deal with her again, but he sounded willing to deal with me. I’ll have to see if I can get the hearing aids back before I leave. He’s going to a conference for the rest of this week and I’m leaving next Tuesday, so that gives me a day to see if I can get a blurb from him about the hearing aides.

After I finished talking with Jim, Mom and I continued to put the puzzle together. When I said that it’s a new puzzle, I meant it is new to us, but when we came down to the end, one piece was missing. Don’t you just hate that?

Mark and I spoke this evening. He had a dental appointment this morning to replace a crown that he’s had since the 1980s. It had a hole in it and a cavity was forming inside. This afternoon, while his mouth was still numb, he had an eye appointment. He has an astigmatism in his left eye. He said that he could tell a difference when he covered first his left eye and then his right eye. When he was trying to read the letter chart on the wall, he guessed wrong on a couple of the letters. Fortunately, his glasses are still working to correct his vision. He said that Tucson misses me. I said she has probably forgotten me by now, but he thinks she’ll be happy to see me. I am looking forward to going home!