This morning I checked in with the sitter from last night, as I do every morning, and I was told Mom was up since midnight last night.  The sitter checked her frequently to make sure she was comfortable and not hurting or needing to be changed and she was fine, but Mama had a lot to say last night.

Evidently, in Mama’s mind, she was back at work as head of the Payroll Department at the company she retired from and she was having issues with some men.  Seems that she was having to fuss at them about getting things right!  I mean do your job and do it right!  Mom ran a tight ship at home and the office and earned the nickname “Work Horse.”  We often said she had it written across her forehead.

The sitters and aides in her assisted living community always are amazed when Mama is less than cooperative and I tell her to let me have something (usually something she has a death grip on) so I can go wash it.  Or if it is a blanket, I’ll tell her I need to fold it and put it away.  Since caring for Mama the past ten plus years, I have come to call these “necessary lies.”   I will do almost anything to keep Mama happy.  Before the Alzheimers progressed, she hated for me to leave her, it hurt my heart so bad, so I decided to start telling her I had a “job” to do,  aka pick up the kids from school, go clean house, start supper, something that involved activity and work.  When I mentioned those things, it became easier for her to let me go.  She was glad I was working on something, anything.  She understands work, even now.  She was a hard worker and expected everyone else to work just as hard.

I don’t know what those men were or were not doing last night in Mama’s mind, but boy, they had better get their act together!  There is no slacking in Norma Jean’s world.

With a smile and a happy heart,