August 29, 2017

Tuesday lunch with Jane

It was a typical day today I suppose. Jane was sitting in a chair in the great room with her back to me when I got there. I walked around to face her & she looked up & smiled. Definitely knew who I was immediately today, which is always a plus. I asked her if she wanted to go have lunch & she just looked at me. I said I have a new flavor of cupcake for you today. She smiled & stood up & grabbed my hand.

We walked to the kitchen & I dropped Jane’s hand so I could pull out her chair for her – she didn’t like that. She froze & would not move until I once again grasped her hand. I’m not sure what that was about. She was walking slow today, but sturdy. Nonetheless, I am always happy to hold her hand if that makes her feel more comfortable.

Today’s lunch was interesting – rotisserie chicken, asparagus & creamed corn. Jane ate it, but was much more interested in her cupcake. I can’t say I blame her, but I told her she needed to eat her lunch first. She just stared at me blankly. I said, “I know – I am such a pain in the butt.” Jane looked at me & said YES! I then said, “it’s a good thing you love me.” She smiled & giggled. She ate her lunch fairly quickly – apparently eager for her cupcake – which was raspberry coconut. No picture today – sorry. It was messy & Jane wanted to eat it, not take pictures of it.

After lunch, we headed outside like always. It was warm again today & Jane was walking slowly, but she also wasn’t in a hurry to go inside. So we sat under the shade of the trees for about 15 minutes. Jane didn’t seem to have much vocabulary today & was content just sitting quietly, holding my hand. I was getting warm & I was beginning to worry about Jane so I asked her if we could go to the clubhouse. She fought me on this suggestion so I simply waited until she chose to stand up. We then made our way to the clubhouse & sat on the couch inside. There is typically a male resident in the clubhouse & today another male resident walked in a few times, holding his stuffed bear & mumbling. Jane finally tired of the distractions so we walked back outside. We took our time walking back to her house, until another resident wanted to talk to us.

It is clear to me, Jane wants to be the center of attention during her visits. She seems fine when the staff walk by because they always say hello to her first & call her by her name. But the other residents, she is not as patient with. I notice she is fine with them when I come in or leave – it’s only when I am there visiting with her. We all want to feel special – I don’t blame her for wanting all of my attention.

While we were sitting in the clubhouse alone, we began flipping through this weird photography book of chickens. There were some scary chickens in that book! But also some beautiful ones. Jane was quite intent on looking at the entire book. It’s been a long time since she has been interested in looking at anything. I have no idea where this interest came today. But we said this black chicken with very long feathers & I said oh – that looks like Lola! Jane giggled so we decided to send a pic to my sister in law & tell her we found a picture of Lola – if she were a chicken. Lola is my brother & sister in law’s dog who was my foster before they adopted her. She is a beautiful dog with very long fur on her ears.

It was just a basic day today. No real excitement but nothing bad either.