Happy Birthday, Dear!

One day late, I took Bob out for his birthday. 

Earlier, I had spent the day with my mother down at Mill Stream Commons Assisted Living.  Mom had moved in December 1st and a couple of days later experienced a heart attack. I think it was brought about by old age (97 yrs.), narrowing of the arteries and the stress of this new chapter in her life. Mom tried out everything those first few days - getting up, rushing to get dressed and get to breakfast on time (she is NOT a morning person). After breakfast she used her brand-new walker-on-wheels (remember, this woman only moved about thirty steps in her townhome between couch/TV room/kitchen/bedroom/bathroom/etc; she now lives on third floor, nearby an elevator, which is only a matter of steps from the dining room.) to go and locate the hairdresser. After finding the hairdresser, she is able to have her hair done, right away.After lunch, Mom agrees to join a book club watching the "African Queen". At bedtime, she can't find her female products to wear during the night and gets anxious about having an "accident". This poor lady doesn't want to let any of us down and hopes to prove that she can "do it all" - she just did too much. Fortunately, there was no heart damage and she only spent about four days in the Cardiac Care Unit of the local hospital. But she is not the same lady - more likely to be fatigued and a bit more forgetful.  It's so hard not to second guess - should we have left her in her own home? She had fallen a couple of times there, was not enjoying cooking and eating meals alone and monitoring her medicines was becoming a concern. I hope that she will "bounce back" - she is my best friend, after my husband. She offers me such unconditional love. There was such a lump in my stomach as I left her yesterday afternoon.

Getting back to Bob - - we stopped at Oak City Restaurant here in Brooklyn Center for an early dinner (we had a gift coupon from the restaurant for his birthday - buy one get one free!) and we both had barbecued ribs - a big slab for each of us that we promptly split in half and put in a box to eat later this week. They were delicious and just fell off the bones. Afterwards, we travelled "across the river" to the History Theater in downtown St. Paul (located in the old Science Museum) to view the "Sisters of Swing" - a musical biography of the three Andrews Sisters. It was a wonderful production - talented actors and excellent singing, all with a light narrative of the ups and downs of their singing careers (they were born and raised in Minnesota and won a talent contest at the Orpheum Theater in the 1930's). The music was very retro ("Bugle Boys of Company B", "Don't Sit under the Apple tree with anyone Else but Me", etc.), but the memories of a tough time during World War II and the USO entertainment shows were good to recall, as we again see several years of war overseas and military sons and daughters experiencing homesickness and loneliness.

Bob was very tolerant of this female-dominated play - thank goodness, there was a character that was kind of a "stooge" who provided alot of comic relief and interactive skits with members of the audience. We enjoyed the play (tickets that I obtained through a Silent Auction fundraiser for our St. John's School last February) and the Christmas lights downtown St. Paul and our precious time together. Bob is 67 yrs. old now, very tolerant of his crazy, workaholic wife who never does anything half-way. He is my anchor and my best friend. The last thirty-nine years seem like both a long time (filled with many stories and memories) and a short time, with days passing by so fleetingly fast.We now have an understanding - to give each other big bear hugs at least twice a day!  Believe it or not, that's sometimes hard to remember and do!

Jeanne