Plugging Away at Making Mom's Life Better

I made an appointment for my dad and I to meet with the floor coordinator on Tuesday at 2pm. I also left a message (yesterday) for the family coordinator at the Alzheimer's Association (although I'm annoyed that I haven't heard back from her).

Then, I went this morning to visit my mom since I got ropped into going with my father tonight to this horrible formal not-my-style military ball. And my dad isn't visiting Mom today or yesterday at all since he's helping out his friend with a garage sale. So, I spoke with Mom's care manager who said that she'll get me the phone number of the massage therapist who comes to give treatments to another person on the floor. (I asked the floor coordinator for this weeks ago, but she told me that bascially she couldn't be bothered.)

And, I ran into the notorious activities director. She spoke with me for awhile, even though honestly I just had such anger for this woman for letting things go so badly with Mom that I didn't want to talk with her. But, I tried to be a Jewbu and have compassion for her. So, she told me that they let the part time activities director go, who only worked for 16 hours a week anyway. That person was doing mostly stuff on my mom's floor.

She told me that because of my and this Jewish organization's efforts, someone is coming once a month to do a Shabbat service with my mom and the other Jewish residents. I need to find a way to contact her (the activities director like can't even be bothered to get it for me). Anyway, I'm really excited about this.

And, then she told me that her grandmother died, and she's going to a funeral next week. And, she had tears in her eyes; I almost hugged her. The whole conversation was very odd. Clearly, she inferred that she saw the list that I gave to the floor coordinator. I can't even begin to describe how frustrated it makes me that no one was planning on responding to me, but they all clearly talked about it.

But, she told me that she's looking for volunteers and appreciates my efforts, and it was nice to just be in the conversation for once. I made a bunch more calls to get stuff set up for mom. Of course, I've done hardly any work today. And, I've emailed people to maybe go and play Jewish music at Mom's facility. It seems like my efforts are paying off, if only in little increments; its nice to know that I'm making a difference.