Well shit!
And sometimes it comes up coconut. No sooner had I posted my paen to gratitude this past Thanksgiving than I heard a horrible crash downstairs and discovered that my mother Leatrice, 87, had suffered a serious stroke. I don’t believe in a god who causes sparrows to fall but if there is anyone in charge of the universe, I find some comfort in knowing that it has a black sense of humor, like my own.
In any event, we rushed her off to the hospital (thanks to our GPD and EMS guys – nothing like them in traumatic times) and … we’ll see. Recovery from these things is measured in weeks and months, not hours and days, something I’ve grown tired of explaining to friends who keep calling wanting to know whether she’ll get better. I’m tempted to set up a recording on the answering machine promising to call if there are significant developments but of course I realize that friends and family are just concerned, and calling because of their love for the Fountain matriarch.
But she’s in better hands than mine and, other than visiting her there’s nothing I can do, so I don’t. Blogging, however, is always a good relief valve. Back to politics and real estate, two other things out of my control.
Sorry to hear about your Mother Chris. Best wishes for a full recovery.
Yes, sorry to hear about your Mother. Didn’t Walt warn you about a diet of gressy roadkill stew? Best wishes for a full recovery.
We’re here for you, whatever you need. You do know that, right?
XO
The EOS family
All the best to your family at this tough time, May your Mom gain strength and have a rapid improvement in health.
CF, all the best for your mother’s recovery. If it is any consolation, my father had one of these things a number of years ago and made a full recovery with the help of the awesome drugs they seem to have developed in recent years.
Chris & Siblings: Very sorry to hear about your Mom’s stroke. The upside to this is that she was likely taken to Greenwich Hospital’s E.R., which I’m guessing you know by know is Primary Stroke Center, so they know their stuff. My own mother has been there twice now, and received superlative care. Prayers are with her and each of you.
Dude -
Your Mom will be in my prayers and I wish her a speedy recovery.
Your Pal,
Walt
You, your mom, and the rest of your family are in our prayers.
May she recover quickly. Best wishes!
Just don’t visit her, Walt!
My prayers for your mother’s recovery have been launched.
I saw your beautiful and elegant mother on TCM a few weeks ago speaking about her famous father, mother and Marlene Dietrich. How amazing her childhood stories must be.
I wish your mother strength and courage as she perseveres through her recovery so she can share the family history with your children’s children. I wish I could hear those wonderful stories all, too!
What Walt said.
Blessings!
Life is…shared by many of us, like yourself and your family, who are experiencing the changes of parents who are getting along in the years.
Chris – don’t underestimate what you can do when you visit. Talk and touch! Hold her hand and talk to her. If you don’t know what to say (hard to believe you’d ever be out of topics but it happens), read to her from a magazine, paper or book. Bring in her favorite music if you can.
Ask if you can do any simple range of motion exercises with her. Just doing a few simple movements with her arms will help her.
Put up a couple family photos to personalize her room.
Tell her who called and read some of the comments here to her. (the hospital has wifi for guests)
Ask one of her friends to set up a phone chain to update all the friends – it will make them feel useful and help everyone stay up to date.
Most importantly, tell her you love her and give her a kiss on her cheek.
Prayers and wishes for your mom’s full recovery! We are all thinking of you and your family.
Prayer and good vibes for your Mothers recovery.
Thanks, G’Mom – those are all great suggestions (in fact, I’m just back from visiting her and rubbing her back, which she liked). The telephone chain idea is a really good one.
Thanks to you and all readers for their concern.
My best to you and your mom Chris….you sound like a great son.
Great suggestions G’mom…thanks. The CF community is amazing.
We found the caringbridge website invaluable in a similar situation. Check it out.
Sending all our love and best wishes.
Prayers with you, your family and especially your mom.
We are thinking about you and your family. Best wishes for your mother’s recovery.
Wow – just saw this – hang in there – please God it’ll be okay..
It’s not rude and is understandable if you let people know that your sleep pattern is interrupted by all of this and that too many phone calls may impede your ability to catch up on it, and that you can’t turn off your phone in case the hospital wants to communicate with you. At times in the past, when a parent was ill, all the relatives who live out of town had only one way to show they cared, and that was phoning for updates and to demonstrate their caring, but it made it much harder for me to rest in order to function in the rest of my life.
Hope your Mom is feeling better soon, my prayers are with you and your family.
Christopher – love and prayers to you and Mom.
Hang in there. You have an awful lot of folks rooting for Mom. Walt even wrote his first totally clean message ever!
thinking of you all.
She will be in my prayers.
Chris, just getting the news….so sorry to hear about your mom and hope she is improving. Ditto G’mom – great ideas. Also believe in therapy dogs if they’d let one in at GH. You are a devoted son and I’m sure your mom knows it. Best wishes and hope for a quick recovery.
I’ve been outside the past few days painting the house (now that we can afford paint — Ben Moore is $48 a gallon!) and just saw this post.
I certainly wish you and your mother well. Leatrice is such a graceful beauty — I saw her in a video several years ago — there are sure to be plenty of doctors and nurses who will fawn all over her. Good. She deserves it.
I’ll second what everyone else said so well…
Chris, I’m so sorry to hear of your mother’s illness. Wishing her a speedy and full recovery, your family will be in my prayers.
God bless you and your mother…..