David Has Cool Roommates

David had a fall this morning trying to stand up from a chair. He and the chair both went down. However, he is fine and doesn't appear to have any pain at all.

I got back from Portland today and went to visit him at his assisted living facility today for a couple of hours. Rather than stressing us both out with a trip away from his new home, I thought it would be better to hang out there. So I brought watercolors to play with, and he was about to enter another card game when I got there. It works very well; the caregivers help those who can't remember to play or don't have the cognitive skills to play, or don't know the rules. Dad fell into the latter category. It was Crazy Eights. They played while I put on a painting demonstration.

While I was there, I observed some things that were uplifting. Dad was laughing and making jokes with his new housemates. He didn't get impatient at all with the ones who couldn't remember to play or kept saying the same thing or asking the same question over and over. In other words, he fit right in and was truly happy about it. About the sixth time Edith said "I WON!" Dad rolled his eyes like, "Can you believe this." When everyone caught him at it, they all had a good laugh, including Edith and Dad.

Another milestone (and this is a biggy): He said, "Isn't Bill having a birthday tomorrow?" Bill is one of the residents. I don't know what's bigger, Dad's remembering Bill's name, or remembering that he had a birthday tomorrow. The question came up by the group: what was I going to do with the painting? I said, "Well, I thought I'd give it to Bill, the birthday boy." Then Dad told me he was blind. I said, that's OK, and everyone agreed it would still be a good idea. I gave it to Bill when he was sitting at dinner. The caregiver described the painting which was a mountain/river landscape from an Oregon travel brochure. Charlotte is another resident. She used to be a very active artist "in her youth". Oils, watercolors, everything.

One of the other residents was a movie actress, and she and I had both played in Fiddler on the Roof, she a midsize role in the movie and I one of the daughters in the play. It was such an honor to meet her, and I told her that my sister and I had both played Spritza and Byelke, and Dad popped off, "And my wife played Grandma Tzietel!" We made her so happy that we actually knew the name of her character and were familiar with her part and a bunch of the other characters.

I don't know that every visit will be this great. But this one was definitely incredible. They are going to watch the movie Fiddler on the Roof tonight to see her play her role. I told Dad I'd come see him some time next week.