My Mom

I flew to Toronto last week to visit my mom. It is almost too hard to put into words how she is. She has some weird compulsions that she must do which is very odd. She admitted that she hears people telling her to do things in her head. I am surprisingly undisturbed by this. I mean it is awful but knowing that she is hearing voices is more reassuring than thinking that a real person is telling her to do this odd things (making sure her napkin is on the left then on the right, running her cane across the floor and then up in an upside-down letter J, stabbing her plate with a knife, etc.).

She had an MRI the day before I arrived and she was in such a good mood and so "with it" when I flew in. It was exciting to have an actual conversation with her. She said she felt as though she had awoken from a dream and that the past several weeks were so weird to her. Then the following day, she forgot I was there and asked me my name. And then it went downhill from there. It kind of makes me wonder if the strong magnets in the MRI did something to her brain and helped her be back to her old self for a short time.

I am going back in a couple of weeks for her 80th birthday. It is the original trip that I had booked but then I was convinced by my aunt, my cousin and my brother to go sooner. I am glad that I went. I hope my mom is able to get into a nursing home soon (long wait lists in Toronto). She really needs more care than the assisted living provides.