Somber Days

This past week my brothers and I had to make the difficult decision to move my Mother into long term care.  Up until now she has still been living at home on her acreage, but with home care staff coming in every day.  In recent months her dementia has progressed to the point that she could be a danger to herself.  Earlier this summer we put her on the waiting list for some government funded seniors residences.  When we checked recently, we found that she was still months away from a placement.  So we pulled the trigger and elected to move her into private care.  We had to tell her some white lies about the need to move out for a while, so that an exterminator could come in and deal with a mouse infestation in her home.  That was partly true, as there has been a mouse problem, and in fact we caught one in a trap on the morning of her exit, which kind of sealed the deal.  I don't feel very good about having to lie to her, but she was very accepting, and in hindsight maybe that was the best option...?

I spent the past few days working with my brothers to plan the move, lay out the lie, and actually execute the whole plan.  With that now behind us, I bailed out and headed out to Nordegg for a few days.

After all the emotions of the past week, Saturday dawned with a very somber mood.  The skies were grey and leaden, and there was a skiff of fresh snow when I woke up.  As I made my way out of the city and southwest towards the cottage the mood was very overbearing.  The skies were very heavy and gloomy.  The clouds were scraping the ground.  It was more than a little overwhelming.

This time around it was a solo trip to Nordegg, although I did take Hank along.  Margarit and the girls elected to stay behind.  Hank does not travel well in a vehicle, and the vet gave us some sedatives to try and make the trip a little easier for him.  I suppose that helped a little, but he spent most of the three hour trip sitting in my lap and panting.  He did a little better after a break in Rocky Mountain House when I stopped for half an hour to grab some groceries.  After we arrived at the cottage he seemed to chill out a little, though he was probably still a little stoned.  It was gloriously quiet, with virtually no neighbors around, and we just got a fire going and settled down for the night.