Christmas for the Riley’s went well this year. Grams, Shane and I spent the day with Mom. We opened presents and enjoyed the day together. Although it wasn’t like our “normal” Christmas with the family, it was still nice. Hey, Christmas comes once a year…. We have many more! Well, here is a pic of the family on Christmas Day! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!
Yay for Mom, she has finally graduated to ‘regular food’ !!! Meaning she can now have things like toast, nuts, and raw vegetables. She also gets her meat or chicken as a whole and is required to cut it on her own. Mom continues to be in high spirits about her recovery but like everyone, has some down days. She is mostly concerned with her eye sight and frustrated that they aren’t healing as fast as she would like. Her therapists continue to work her hard and even on the tired days her goal to achieve independence gets her through that one last session.
This holiday season has come so quickly and soon enough the hospital will need it’s own mailroom for my mother. She has recieved so many wonderful letters and emails from people! As for Shane, Grams and I, we will be spending Christmas day with mom at the hospital. Although Christmas may be a little difficult this year…. we still have each other, and that’s what the holiday season is truly about!..
The new year is right around the corner and that means Dad’s service will be here before we know it. For those who do not yet know or would like a quick reminder, the service is January 8, 2005 at the First Church in Ipswich at 2:00 pm. There will be desserts provided after the service at the church.
My apologies for the delays in updates but life is quite busy for us all. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays! Merry Christmas!!
**** If anyone is interested in brinigng a baked good for after the service feel free to do so. If anyone has any more questions about the service you can email me at MusicianSR@Hotmail.com .
Two days before Christmas and it certainly going to be a different Christmas for most of us. We are certainly going to miss Steve. Linda and Steve often came to PA for a few days and Sandy and I have talked about some of the funny stories that Steve related about his senior friends at work. Linda went out of the hospital for the first time today. She was accompanied by two therapists and another patient on a trip to a pizza parlor. She didn’t want to go but did because she felt she had to go to make everybody happy. She did ultimately have a good time. We didn’t want her to have her first outing to be the memorial on the 8th. Currently she feels that she is not making progress at the pace she did earlier. She is concerned that they are pushing her to get her out by Feb. 1. They told her that they would not push her out if she wasn’t ready. This was comforting to her but she still feels that she needs to be further down the road. We have been told that we will be trained over a period of 4 days in January on those things that we need to know in order to bring Linda to Thorndale. To say the least we are looking forward to Linda coming but we are scared. We are looking for a wheel chair van so we can go places with Linda. If anyone knows of one available let me know. The rehab. is ordering all the medical equipment and having it sent here so we can figure out what we need to do to accomodate Linda. Sandy and I will be having a quiet Christmas with Kevin and Jess, Eric and Jill. We wish you a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year.
I am sorry this website has not been updated for awhile but Linda got a new room and a new phone number but it wasn’t working for a few days and we did not talk to her for about four days. Linda tends to spend a lot of time running around in her wheel chair and is not in her room too often. Her new room number is 702. She continues to make slow but steady progress. Most of the progress that is visible is her face and the paralysis therein. She was able to make her right eye open a little today and was able to see her lap and for some of us seeing our laps is a big deal. She is still hoping to get more from the eye specialist. She can feel her eye blinking a little. She is swallowing better and is one step down from a regular diet, eating cold cereal, meats and other such delicacies. She is learning to turn side to side with the momentum of her shoulders. She is looking into a wheelchair van, a Hoya Lift and other medical paraphenalia that she will need when she comes to Pennsylyvania. She gets a lot of pain in her ribcage and still has the pain caused by the “tight band” around her chest. This is a common sensation for people with thoracic paralysis which should eventually go away. A reminder about the memorial service. It will be on January 8th at 2:00PM at the UCC church in Ipswich. Let’s hope the weather is cooperative. Sandy and I are going up to Boston on January 6th and staying until the 11th when we fly home with Ruth. Ruth will be back in Boston on December 18th.
So Mom, Shane and I have finally set up a date for Dad’s memorial service. It will be Saturday the 8 of January, 2005 at 2:00 pm at The First Church in Ipswich, 1 Meeting House Green, Ipswich, MA, 01938.
As for today, mom was up and about working as hard as usual. Today is her second day eating ’soft’ foods, such as pancakes, french toast, eggs and meatloaf…. which of course she is enjoying VERY much! She loves the visitors and mail she is getting, very happy to have a visit from the minister that married her and Steve. She’s maintaining a positive attitude and although times can be hard for her she continues to keep on fighting.