Update on Grace, Sunday, Oct 24

Sunday. Latest update 3:00 PM.

3:00 PM - On the way to church this morning, Jan and I went to see Grace. We each took an armload of new library books for her.

When we got there, her door was closed, so I hung back while Jan peeked in to see if all was okay, taking with her the books we'd brought.

She closed the door behind her, and was in there quite a few minutes.

When she came out, she closed the door again, and said we'd just come back and visit her after church.

After we got out of the nursing home, Jan told me what the situation was. Grace was fine. She'd gotten up and had assistance to take care of some morning errands, and had gotten herself halfway dressed. She was in her wheelchair, awaiting assistance to finish some cleanup tasks and finish dressing.

However, the attendant couldn't help her now because she was busy. It seems she was required to escort another patient who wanted a smoke break.

Can you hear all the less-than-charitable comments I'm suppressing? Let me leave it at a sincere hope that we're not using Medicare dollars to pay for this.

Jan and I left and went to church.

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(A bit later) - After church, we went back to visit Grace, and this time, everything was in order.

Grace was all dressed and sitting in her wheelchair, and smiling hugely when we came in.

We talked about how church went, about playing in the orchestra this morning, about the sermon, and about what's coming up in the church.

Grace asked how we'd slept, and Jan told her we stayed up until nearly midnight, watching the movie "Robin Hood" we rented. We discussed that for a while, about how the movie wasn't what you might have expected, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, but rather covered the period between when Robin came home from the crusades and when he became the outlaw.

Jan said it was good enough that it kept her awake. Mostly. She only fell asleep once.

We asked if Grace had been to church, and she said indeed she had. They had a good crowd in there this morning, and the service was a broadcast of last week's service at First Baptist of Jackson, and it was about what they are doing in Haiti now.

I told Grace, "Soon, when you can put some weight on that leg, we're going to see about checking you out of this place for some activites."

Grace grinned and said that would be nice. We talked about maybe taking her home for a bit, or to church, where the really nice receptionist had told us about the wonderful provisions they have for people in wheelchairs.

Grace said, "I know God has a purpose for all things, and I've been wondering what His purpose is for me being in this place. Maybe it's to learn patience, and acceptance."

Then Jan told Grace some more about our visit with Katie yesterday. I said, "Katie is doing such a marvelous job of being a two-year-old."

Grace smiled and said, "None better."

Jan said, "We've just got to get a video of Katie singing the alphabet song. She is so cute. She's got most of it down, she's about seventy-five percent accurate."

I said, "We need to get that video SOON." I know she'll be getting more and more accurate soon.

Jan said, "We were doing a shapes puzzle yesterday, and Katie was having some problems with the orientation triangles, which were right triangles, and would only fit one way. She would get frustrated and say, 'You do it!' So I told her to see there was a LONG side on the triangle, and a long side on the place to put it, and do you know she never had another problem with it?"

We all agreed that Katie is undoubtedly the smartest two year old on the planet.

Grace told us she had a good shower last night. She said, "They tried to get me into the whirlpool, now that they've got their chair lift fixed, to get me over the rim and through the door in the side of the tub. But I just couldn't bend this knee enough to get through the door, so I didn't get into the whirlpool."

Then we talked about the amazing progress Grace has made in knee flexibility, just in the last week or two, and how there's only a week left until she can put weight on the leg, and three weeks until she sees the doctor again.

Grace mentioned she was out of clean slipper socks, and Jan said we'd be doing more laundry for her.

We talked some about the other patients, and about how one man in an electric wheelchair seems to always want to come talk to Grace, even though she's not comfortable with him around. Jan said, "Maybe that's one reason you're here. To minister to some of the other patients?"

We checked the time of the football games today, and found that the Saints were going to be on in just a few minutes. So I turned on her TV and tuned in the proper channel.

I wasn't surprised to find that they still haven't fixed Grace's TV remote control. Maybe I'll take in one of the universal remotes we have lying around the house and see if I can get it to work for her there.

We talked some about Grace's breakfast today - she had oatmeal and coffee and milk and orange juice and prune juice and Jan said, "Wow. Do you think you had enough liquids?"

Then the Saints football game came on TV and we could hear they were bringing the lunch cart down the hall, so we told Grace we'd be back later today, and left.

And that's all I've got right now. As I write this, the poor ol' Saints are going down in flames to the Cleveland Browns, so maybe it's getting to be time for a nap.

Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday, everyone!

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