Well as always, Mom never ceases to amaze. Her will power is something else. So I spoke with both the caregiver and the hospice nurse on the phone. Her legs have a light blue tinge, she can't eat, can barely drink, mostly unresponsive. It sounds like this is it from all appearances.
So I decide to take the trip down to Las Cruces to ease what appears to be her passing. But as always, she rebounds off the mat like a Big Time Wrestler. When the referee's count gets to 2 then she summons up her strength to bounce off the mat and strike her opponent with a chair! Our 1st day of the trip we get the report that she is eating again, then sitting up in bed. But it is too late to turn around so we continue our trek out West. She is speaking now that we have arrived, although she is difficult to understand. I recall a cousin saying before we left that they are not going to believe she is gone until she has been dead for 3 days!
During our visit in Las Cruces there was a rough 24 hour stretch for the caregiver, Beverly. Her younger sister fell while riding her bike and broke both her hip and knee cap. Then the sister got a blood clot in her lung. So when we arrived that day, for an afternoon visit, she was just leaving for the hospital. The nurse, Ruby, arrived to cover for Beverly while she left to look after her sister.
Both Ruby and her husband were all dressed up, it had been a date night for them. So I felt bad for them having to lose an evening together like that. But the kicker was something we found out the next day. The elderly woman (94) in the room next to Mom passed away while we were there. Ruby put her time of death at 4:20, we left at 4:30 to go eat supper.
Beverly had cared for Dorothy for about 5 years. So she was upset at that and also her sister when we saw her the next morning for our visit. You could tell that she was fatigued. We only visited for about a half hour that morning so that Beverly could relax. Oh, fortunately the doctors were able to remove the blood clot. There was another surgery needed for something else that I couldn't recall, but it seemed like her sister was out of the danger zone. So hopefully poor Beverly can relax and gather herself together.
On a positive note, we met an Armenia family at the pool in the motel during our initial stay in Las Cruces. There was a heated pool and Jacuzzi. There were 2 boys and 2 girls. The girls may have been twins, they were about the same size and looked to be about 6. The boys were older. The girls spoke very good English and were all smiles. The younger boy was very timid about getting in the water to start with, but was soon splashing and causing mischief.
The father said that they were going to stay for 4 more years and go back. The kids are getting Americanized, they may have a tough time convincing them to return. I recall some of the people I knew from India that came here to the US to work. Oh we will only stay 3-4 years and go home. And years later they are still here.
We plan now to stay in New Mexico for about 4 weeks to see if anything happens. If nothing has changed and Mom is stable, then we go home. But we figure while we are here then we will play tourist a little. We always wanted to check out Santa Fe so we are heading there for a few days before going to Rodeo.
