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riggety-jig, redux
Jun. 2nd, 2004 09:23 amactually the rest of the weekend wasn't that memorable. not that friday was, really, but i took notes during the traveling time on friday, and i took no notes on saturday or sunday.
really the salient feature was hanging out with the family -- not just my brother and fsil and parents, but also my cousin the doctor and her husband, who have just moved into a very nice place on the beach. hanging out with the family is almost always a good thing. and! didn't end up arguing with the 'rents even a little bit. managed not to talk about moving at all, which pleased me; and when my folks kept bugging me about details of the oxford term calendar, since they want to try to plan when they can come visit me there (please note: it is now june. i don't leave until october.), i finally made them see that the better way to think of the trip is not Trip To Visit Daughter, but Trip To England On Which Visit With Daughter Will Occur. score!
unfortunately, it became clear on sunday at my cousin's place that my mother has essentially been lying to us about my grandfather's health. (that's a f-locked link. sorry.) she's been going out to visit her folks just about every month lately, with her sister, which i suppose i could have seen as a heads-up; but my aunt has always gone more often than my mother, so the fact that my mother was going more often than she has in the past didn't strike me as anything remarkable. but i now learn that he's just falling to pieces. increasingly incontinent (which i hadn't known was among his issues in the first place). almost no strength left; my mother told us (once it came up) that he'd thought about it for about five minutes before he decided he could try to stand up by himself, but with her there to spot him, from where he was sitting on the steps, and move to a chair nearby. he doesn't know my cousin any more, when she visits -- the past few times she's been home, when she leaves the room he asks her mother who he was just talking to. he fell down the porch steps at my (other) cousin's place not long ago, knocking her three-year-old over in the process. (nobody was hurt; the kid was startled and cried, of course, but unharmed, and my grandfather miraculously broke no bones.) my grandmother says the happiest time of day for him is when wheel of fortune and jeopardy come on the TV, because he recognizes those people.
my brother hadn't known any of this, either, and joined me in scolding mom for keeping on telling us everyone was doing fine -- although he had known that the grandparents weren't going to be able to come to his wedding because the traveling is just too much for them now.
really the salient feature was hanging out with the family -- not just my brother and fsil and parents, but also my cousin the doctor and her husband, who have just moved into a very nice place on the beach. hanging out with the family is almost always a good thing. and! didn't end up arguing with the 'rents even a little bit. managed not to talk about moving at all, which pleased me; and when my folks kept bugging me about details of the oxford term calendar, since they want to try to plan when they can come visit me there (please note: it is now june. i don't leave until october.), i finally made them see that the better way to think of the trip is not Trip To Visit Daughter, but Trip To England On Which Visit With Daughter Will Occur. score!
unfortunately, it became clear on sunday at my cousin's place that my mother has essentially been lying to us about my grandfather's health. (that's a f-locked link. sorry.) she's been going out to visit her folks just about every month lately, with her sister, which i suppose i could have seen as a heads-up; but my aunt has always gone more often than my mother, so the fact that my mother was going more often than she has in the past didn't strike me as anything remarkable. but i now learn that he's just falling to pieces. increasingly incontinent (which i hadn't known was among his issues in the first place). almost no strength left; my mother told us (once it came up) that he'd thought about it for about five minutes before he decided he could try to stand up by himself, but with her there to spot him, from where he was sitting on the steps, and move to a chair nearby. he doesn't know my cousin any more, when she visits -- the past few times she's been home, when she leaves the room he asks her mother who he was just talking to. he fell down the porch steps at my (other) cousin's place not long ago, knocking her three-year-old over in the process. (nobody was hurt; the kid was startled and cried, of course, but unharmed, and my grandfather miraculously broke no bones.) my grandmother says the happiest time of day for him is when wheel of fortune and jeopardy come on the TV, because he recognizes those people.
my brother hadn't known any of this, either, and joined me in scolding mom for keeping on telling us everyone was doing fine -- although he had known that the grandparents weren't going to be able to come to his wedding because the traveling is just too much for them now.
