Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Mom’s New A-Line

Last week, a facebook friend posted a picture of her daughter with a caption lamenting the fact that she had taken a pair of scissors to her beautiful, long brown locks…and the day before school starts! Her little girl had taken out a good chunk of hair right up to her jaw line. Mom was upset and by the looks of the picture, her daughter was upset as well; no doubt she got a good reprimand!

I’m sure many people viewing that picture either flinched in horror or chuckled with memories of their own curious, young children. I’ve had a couple of close calls myself with my own kids. But when I saw that picture, it wasn’t my kids I was chuckling about. I almost typed out my comment but then thought about how strange that must sound to all of those reading who don’t know me. Can you imagine a comment reading,

“I had the same problem with my mom this week!!”

Well…let me tell you…it’s high time my dad hid the scissors from my mom! Last Monday (a week ago) I went for my usual day with mom. I peeked in her room and saw that she was still primping in front of the mirror. I closed to door quietly to give her some privacy; she hates me seeing her as a “Plain Jane”. Back in the living room, I heard the blow dryer go on and I knew right away that she was likely burning more holes in her shirt.

[Mom gets very sweaty, but she doesn’t understand why she is so “wet”; her solution is to use a hot blow dryer to dry herself off. Consequently, she is burning a lot of holes in her clothing].

I quickly ran back to her room to unplug the blow dryer, much to mom’s dismay. As I turned around, I caught glimpse of mom’s toilet…and a huge clump of red hair floating on the water; it was a good amount of hair. My eyes widened in horror as I turned to mom.

“Mom, you cut your hair!” I exclaimed.

In a bit of shock, I ran my fingers through the back of her hair, noticing the huge chunk that had been cut out above her neckline. Annoyed that I was touching her hair, mom mumbled,

“It’s so hot too, I cut this here,” she motioned to the back of her hair and towards the toilet, where she had discarded inches of her hair.

Mom’s new A-line:

moms hairShe doesn’t quite understand why it’s not curling so well back there. I wonder…

My Uncle texted me this morning to relate that my Aunt had found yet another clump of hair in her bathroom toilet upon their arrival. I think we know what needs to be done…hide the scissors!!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Don’t Forget Me, Grandma

It’s been kind of hard for me to write lately. Not just because I was finishing up summer break with the kids, but because I’m kind of at a loss sometimes of what to write. Lately, every time I see mom, it seems as though she’s slipping farther and farther away. Her hair and make up continues to get worse and worse (I didn’t think that was possible) and her speech is more and more slurred together. Since she talks about the same 5 subjects over and over, I can usually make sense of what she’s talking about; but for the average Joe listening to her it’s hard to understand what she’s saying.

Last weekend, the kids and I went over to mom’s house. My daughter (9 years old) had gone back into grandma’s computer room to say hi. She came back to me in the living room, a few minutes later, with a somber look on her face. She looked up at me and from behind her purple, wire rimmed glasses I saw a small sadness in her eyes. With her lips slightly turned down, she looked up at me and quietly said,

“Mommy, grandma doesn’t remember me. She thought I was Marty.”

[Marty is a lady from church that we’ve known for almost 30 years…I don’t know if that’s who she was thinking of, since church ladies come over every week to help, or if she just mixed up names.]

“Did you tell her who you were?” I asked, my heart aching for my little girl that her grandma didn’t recognize her.

“Yes, I told her I was Aubrey and then she said ‘you’re Cassandra’s daughter,” Aubrey replied.

I hugged Aubrey tightly and tried to reassure her,

“See, she remembers you. She just got confused for a minute.”

Mom does get confused and after some explanation, she will sometimes remember who people are (particularly our more immediate family). But I think the days are numbered. She seems to un-recognize familiar faces more and more often; now with her own grandkids! In a couple of weeks, I will be taking my niece-daughter away to college in another state. She’s already expressed her concerns that grandma probably won’t remember her by the time she next comes back to visit. :(