Perxactly

per-xact-ly (adverb)
[Origin 2008, from Latin perfectus, to finish + Latin exactus, to weigh]
1. Precisely, completely, to the uttermost. "Is that the itchy spot? Perxactly!"
2. Adequate in every respect; "That is perxactly the itchy spot."
3. Fully accurate; "Perxactly right."
(Darrow Family Unabridged Dictionary of Rose-isms, 2008)

The last several days have been full of conversation. Mom has been talking, laughing, frowning, rolling her eyes, instructing...every hour has a Rose story.

The conversation picked up the pace on Sunday evening. Monday morning, she offered us a new word when she couldn't scratch an itch on her hip. I hit the spot perxactly. Nothing but perxaction for my mom.

This next story is a little personal but Suzy and I agreed I needed to lay aside propriety for the sake of the bloggers. As we started our morning routine on Monday, I had not yet changed my clothes (I usually sleep in my clothes when I'm with Mom). To make things fun and interesting for Mom, I told her I was about to perform an amazing feat by holstering my bosom without removing my shirt. Without fanfare I succeeded and announced to her, "There! I'm holstered!" To which she replied, "Could I have some of that?" After Suzy and I recovered enough to speak, I told her, "Mom, I got them from you!" She shook her head and said, "Well, shame on me."

Mom has been enjoying the Olympics every day. We watched Michael Phelps win his eighth gold. Jodi told me the other day that Mom and Paul were watching together, and that each had very interesting takes on the unfolding events. Paul and Mom have a special relationship that I can only describe as antagonistic affection.

There are so many moments to share, so much laughter, and not enough time to capture it all. But we'll continue to share the highlights with you.

Before I left for home on Monday I asked Mom if I could take her picture. As much as we tried to get her to laugh, she just didn't. We asked her what happened to her smile. She said with concern, "I think I've lost it."So, the picture below is her best effort, but not reflective of her demeanor.

Suzy told me today that Mom had a moment when she seemed sad. Suzy asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I don't think I have many days left." Suzy asked her if she was sad, and she said she wasn't. Suzy told her, "You know what, I think attitude is everything. So what attitude are we going to have today?" Mom replied in song.

Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy

A kid'll eat ivy too

Wouldn't you

Singing is always the right thing to do. Perxactly.

Dose of Reality

The last few days have been mostly sunny in Boyne City, and so has Rosie.
Mom has gradually been moving into medications in non-pill form, reducing the pill-swallowing hurdles of her daily routine. Although pill time has been a great source of character and patience building for us, we'll just have to find other ways to exercise those virtues.

I promised to share some Rose-isms. We haven't sat down to recall them all on paper yet, but here's a couple:

"The eagle is of symbolic interest."
"I have an anecdote."
"Una minota minosa." We don't know what it means, but Suzy thought it sounded Spanish. A quick web search didn't prove her right. However, there is a Czeck word minuta, meaning "minute."

Mom has been talking from her past more and more. She has been talking about her sister Dorothy, her brothers Howard and Jack. Suzy said she talked about her brother Donald a couple weeks ago - Donald was her brother who died in infancy years before she was born. She has asked about her mother, Naomi, and has occasionally called us Mama.

Mom has frequently talked about Dad, referring to him as my husband, which she never did in the past. He was always Dad or Ken. Yesterday she said to me, "I was expecting your dad would be home from golfing by now." After eight years, I still occasionally wake up forgetting Dad is gone, the sting of reality sometimes taking several minutes to set in. How would it be if reality was not so readily accessible? I asked Mom if she missed him. She said yes. Then we moved on to discuss someone on an old TV gameshow she thought she knew.

The conversation is not always in reality, but the inflection, the humor and the expression are all Mom. She told us yesterday she wasn't very pleasant to be around. Evan told her she is our sunshine, even if she isn't feeling like a sunshiney person. Evan is good at cheering his Grandma up. Almost always, Mom is happy and comfortable, and she really is our sunshine.

Home Alone - Plus One

Miraculously, Mom continues to do well.
"Well" meaning she has been free of infection for the last six weeks, free of the associated maladies associated with infection, on only pain killers and a beta-blocker, and fully expressing her personality.
In the last two months, two of Mom's grandchildren have graduated from high school. Paul and Suzy renewed their wedding vows for their 25th wedding anniversary. She enjoyed the Fourth of July complete with fireworks. She celebrated the birthdays of several grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and her sister, Dorothy. Her life has been full and happy.
The temptation is too great to refrain from exclaiming to hospice, "WE TOLD YOU SO!"
Ahhh. That felt good.
Last week Suzy took her kids - including church kids - camping at St. Ignace Sunday through Tuesday. Then on Thursday, the family minus Corey and Jodi took Haley and Ruby downstate - Ruby to stay with son Tim until her flight home to San Diego on Tuesday, and Haley to fly to Honduras for a three-week mission trip with her friend and missionary, Rosalee Melton. I had the privilege of spending the week with Mom - mostly alone - and we had a great time.


Ruby and Mom, August 7. Ruby prayed for Mom and sweetly encouraged her before she left. We will miss Ruby.

Haley and Grandma Rose, August 7. Haley will be back from her mission trip to Honduras on August 28.




We watched Animal Planet, Red Skelton reruns, and Anna and the King. We've been reading The Shack by William P. Young (if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it), and we got half way through chapter 12 before I left for GR. The Shack was given to me by my wonderful friends Deb and Russ Coates during their Michigan visit in June. Deb expressly recommended the book as a good one for Mom and me to read together. It's hard to know whether Mom really remembers what I read, but she thoroughly enjoys my reading it. And in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying the story.


Mom has been alert and present for the last several days. She is generous with her I love yous and her hugs. She isn't able to use her hands and arms well, but she moves them much more frequently since we began giving her pain killers regularly. She points, tries to scratch - sometimes successfully - attempts to change the channel on the remote, tries to help while feeding her dinner. She loves to hold hands.


Tina gave her a manicure during her visit on August 3. This was Mom's first manicure in several weeks due to the pain in her joints, prior to her regular dosage of meds.


Makayla saying goodby to Great-Grandma Rose with flowers, August 3.


Tina and Mom, August 3.

Mom's visit with Vital Care Nurse Catherine and trainee Amanda on August 7.

Corey and Jodi with Grandma Rose on August 7. She did smile, just a little late.

Here, I asked Mom to smile. She responded with a wink.

Looking Up

Mom has had another good week.

Vital Care nurse Brent came to visit on Thursday. He recommended changing Mom’s catheter tubing, which Suzy did carefully yesterday. The blood samples he took to the lab came back with a hemoglobin result of 9.9 – a tremendous increase from the 8.7 of last week.

Mom is still very conversant and expressive with her hands. Suzy thinks the pain medication is probably the underlying cause for the increase in movement. Now that the pain is in check she motions for things and scratches her occasional itches.

Mom has had frequent visits from Paul’s mother, Ruby, who is here from California. Ruby has a very sweet demeanor and Mom is always happy to see her.

Below are some pictures from last weekend.

Pattie and Bill visiting on Saturday, July 26.

Pat and Mom on Monday, July 29.

Suzy and Mom on Monday, July 29.

Babbette has been snuggling up to Mom regularly.

Mom’s other cat buddy, Teddy, passed away last month. Teddy and Babbette were Mom’s faithful companions, and over time were able to stay on her bed together without annoying each other. We miss Teddy’s affection and blatant vulnerability. He’s the only cat I’ve ever met that would roll on his back in the middle of a room and fall asleep with his feet in the air. Teddy is no doubt warming up the foot of Mom’s bed in heaven. On his back.

Team Hoyt

A friend sent me a link to a video the other day and I just got to it this evening. Maybe you've heard of Rick and Dick Hoyt, but I hadn't until today. The father and son team have competed in hundreds of races over the years, including the Ironman competition, in spite of age and disability. The video is well worth the four minutes - I encourage you to take a look.
Team Hoyt
To learn more about Team Hoyt, go to their website at www.teamhoyt.com.
This video resonates with me today because of Mom. Not because we are carrying her through this time, but because she is important and has something unique to offer the world. We are the lucky ones who get to run the race with her, side by side, every day.

Fair to Mostly Sunny

Mom's had some valleys and peaks over the last few weeks. Currently, we're on a peak. Maybe not at the top of the mountain, but up where the air is clear.

As I mentioned in my last post, Mom's health takes periodic dives and then bounces back. The good spell that followed her rebound on June 30 lasted about a week. She enjoyed watching fireworks lit by the kids outside her bedroom door on Independence Day - in fact, she had looked forward to them all day long. The screeches and whistles were a little much for her, but she continually commented on the beautiful display.

The following week Mom began to grow quiet. There was no infection, but she couldn't seem to speak above a whisper and slowly stopped speaking altogether. Even telling her "I love you," to which she always replies, didn't get a verbal or facial response. Bill and Tyler came early July 13 to install a screen door for her, and Tina came with Aunt Dorothy, Dan, Tami, Devon and Makayla later. Mom smiled a little for the babies, but did not respond much to the rest of us.

Then, in keeping with tradition, when Monday came I greeted her with "Good morning, Mama," and she said, "Well, hi honey!" It was a joy to hear from her again.

That rebound has stayed pretty consistent since. She is experiencing some pain in her joints, her left shoulder and her abdomen. We are administering oral morphine and vicoden in oral suspension to keep her comfortable. She is generally happy and conversant, constantly talking to us and to her occasional hallucinations.

Recently she has given us some fun new Rose-isms, which we will share with you in a later post.



Below are some pictures and a video clip from the last three weeks.


Friend Lei visiting on July 13, Aunt Dorothy in background. Lei sings "The Joy of the Lord is My Strength" to Mom whenever they get together.




Mom, Bill and Tyler.




Tina and Mom.





Dan, Mom and Tami.





Below is a video of Devon saying good-bye to Grandma Rose. You may have to go to the blog to view this if you are receiving this post via email. Go to www.everythingsrosie.blogspot.com and click the right pointing arrow on the video clip.

Last weekend, Paul and Suzy renewed their wedding vows for their 25th wedding anniversary. Mom had a lot of visitors. Here is Mom with Tina and Aunt Dorothy.

Sometime over the weekend someone put these glasses on her - I don't remember who. But we did tell her she looked like Jackie O. She wasn't impressed, but she liked the glasses.

Mom posed for me just before I left for GR on Monday, July 21. Very happy, comfortable and gracious for the camera.

We're in a good place right now. And in case you were wondering, Mom is her generous self again when it comes to I love yous and kisses.

Rosie on the Rebound

Mom had a rough go of it last week. Low grade temp, non-communicative, unable to eat or swallow her pills. Then, marvelous Monday came and you'd never know how difficult last week had been. My mom knows how to rally.

This is not to say that she is her old self. Every time Mom has a round of infection and treatment, she loses a little ground. But just a little.

I told Mom last weekend that I have decided not to take it personally that she seems to get better when I'm leaving. She looked at me like she wondered if I was nuts, probably because she wanted to say something clever but nothing came to her.

Bill, Pattie, Jessy and Tyler came to visit on Saturday. Tina came Sunday on her own. Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

Billy saying good bye on Saturday.

With Tina on Sunday.

With Suzy on Monday.

With Cameron.

With Olivia.

Today, Mom was quiet again and slept a lot. Mondays mysteriously seem to be her best days.