The Wisdom in Windows...

Mom, Jerry and I went to visit Dad yesterday before we left California to return to Nevada.  We had one and a half days to do our laundry and repack for our trip to Missouri to visit friends.

When we arrived at the nursing home we were happy to see the re-landscaping and new front patio were finally finished.  Everything looked so nice....here are a couple pictures of the front...

 Front entrance and front patio

Front right front patio and part of parking lot

We found Dad playing Bingo in the dining room, waiting for lunch.  He had his glasses on and a handsome cap.  We wheeled him outside to the back patio and settled in around a table in the shade...

 Dad and Mom

Dad

 Dad and me

Dad was in rare form...he had ask Mom to bring money the last time she visited him...he asked again, right away.  Mom acted dumb and told him it was K______'s or E_____'s job.  

Dad said, "No, I asked YOU to bring me money the last time you were here, don't you remember?"  

Mom asked what he needed the money for....

"I need money when I go out on a date..."  We all began laughing....so he laughed too.... I suggested he put it on his tab, and that seemed to please him...so we changed the subject...

Mom asked how old he was...."Oh, I'd say I am about 52"..... 

So I asked, "How old do you think I am Dad?"  "Oh....you are about 89".... We all burst into whoops of laughter... I asked how I could be 89 if he was my Dad and was 52?  He looked a bit perplexed, but laughed with us....Mom reminded him he would be 92 in November.

Age is just a number I said, it is all in how you feel....

I asked how he felt and he told us he felt good and happy.  The word of the day was "windows"...almost every topic of conversation had the word windows in it... He told us he was in charge of inspecting all the windows after all of them were installed.

The eyes are the window to the soul....so the windows must represent the goodness inside... Yes! Dad agreed... "And it keeps us insulated."  

Looking at me Dad said, "You are sure well insulated."  Oh man, we all about fell out of our chairs laughing at that one!  Course Dad laughed his "shadow laugh" along with us...which made us laugh even harder!'

I did my best to show Dad pictures of my little grand son Jacob's 2nd birthday party on my camera, but he was having difficulty seeing it....even holding it about an inch from his eye....He was able to see pictures on my droid smart phone easier because I could enlarge them for him to see.  He loved seeing the grand kids and my daughters....telling me he sure wished he could see them....

We talked about how fast everyone is growing and getting older....and Dad assured us good windows make all the difference....

Dad held up his crooked fingers and showed us how he tries to straighten his fingers...I stopped him from pulling on his fingers and showed him my crooked finger, telling him it ran in the family.  We had my husband hold up his hands and my Dad always marvels at Jerry's hands, telling him how wonderful and strong they were...

One of the girls came out carrying Dad's lunch tray which smelled so delicious...we all had not eaten breakfast and were STARVING for lunch.... Dad had a boneless pork chop, fresh zucchini mixed with corn, rice, shredded carrots with mandarine oranges, bread and butter, coffee, milk, chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream.  Our mouths were watering...

I fed Dad and he ate every bite except he did not like the carrots and oranges...took two bites of it and told me he didn't like it.

We could tell Dad was getting tired...so we wheeled him back to his room.  Jerry was walking ahead of us to open the door back into the nursing home and Dad remarked how "perfect his legs were".  When we got to Dad's room, "Blondie" said she would tuck him in.  We all said good bye and I told him I would see him soon.  Dad shook Jerry's hand and told him how glad he was to see him.

It was a great visit and we all loved seeing Dad so happy...