Labor Day

Granna and Grandad have moved to assisted living outside of DFW. It's been a difficult change, but unfortunately, it was time because the ranch was just too isolated for their safety. All of us kids lived 2-3 hours from the ranch, with the ranch right in the middle, so if we moved them to be closer to any one of us, they would automatically be farther away from the other two. We went to visit them over Labor Day weekend. Grandad is in a really nice place close to Uncle Ken.

 

He's got a one-bedroom apartment with a patio and a lot of shared amenities, including a game room, movie room, gym, salon, and several living rooms with fireplaces. We worked on a puzzle with him and ordered off the dinner menu in a private dining room.

Granna's doctor recommended her for memory care, which threw off our plans to share the apartment together. Tragically, the facility where Grandad's apartment is did not have any openings in their memory care unit, and because it was a doctor's assessment, they could not allow Granna to stay with Grandad. Luckily, there was an opening at a place half an hour away. So we're on waitlists at several places to get them together, and hopefully that will happen soon. 

I went to visit Granna, whom we suspect is in the grips of Alzheimer's. There were moments when I could see her old self in her eyes. She recognized me and I asked her if she new my name. To my surprise, she quickly answered my first and last name! Then I remembered I was wearing a nametag, the clever dame. She introduced me to other residents as her daughter, and I kept her company while she ate some lunch. I wish they were closer, but it is what it is.

While I was with Granna, John took the kids to the Fort Worth Aviation Museum. It was a warm, sunny day and most of the airplanes were outside, but they had a good time.

There were some other exhibits inside, like this flight simulator, but apparently, it wasn't really connected to the joystick.

And Buc-cee's is always our sign that we're getting close to home on the drive back. Can't you tell that H loves to be in my pictures?