Long Time Coming

It’s been since Tuesday night that our son, from California, arrived. They haven’t seen each other in over a year. I was wondering if Jerry would remember him when we greeted him at the airport. I dressed handsome Jerry in a nice crisp light blue collared shirt with linen shorts and slip on deck shoes. On his head was his famous “Scoggins Steak and Seafood” hat. Their reunion hug was tight and teary...just as it should be.

Jerry’s decline is pretty evident now. You know how you are when you first wake up. Groggy, unresponsive...sort of like having been hit by a truck? Well, that’s how Jerry has become. Accept, Jerry never fully wakes up. When people are apart for so long, it takes a while to get past the superficial but with each passing day, I’m seeing Mark become more and more sensitive and thoughtful to his dad. It’s also evident that Jerry is enjoying having him here by the way they sit so close to each other. I’ve seen a peaceful quiet come over him.

Yesterday, we had an exciting adventure in our closet. Mark could not express enough how important it is to keep Jerry sharp looking. He’s right. But, as a caregiver, I’ve really become only sporadically energetic over these things. Mark wanted to take Jerry shopping for new clothes. So, I suggested he take an inventory of his closet before he spent my money. (I gave him a $100 budget. BIG WHOOP!) Before long, everything was out of his closet and onto the bed, where we were tossing clothes into piles. We tossed the “old dad” jeans, the thinned tee shirts, the faded golf shirts, unmatched socks, the list goes on. Luckily, he approved of his collared shirts, kaki pants and shorts. We even tossed his golf hats, accept the most prized and put those in the dishwasher for cleaning. Pretty scary what came out of that closet! What a purging! We even found his Alabama football helmet which Mark placed by theTV for football season. It was a hysterical time of laughing!! The ending evaluation came to a nice pair of sunglasses, a pair of shoes, and new jeans (which will be tabled for another day).

Mark keeps stressing the sunglasses. Remember, he’s from California. For one reason, it covers Jerry’s lost and droopy eyes. It’s hard to look into Jerry’s eyes, but also, it helps with moral when he looks good. The other reason is it makes him look like an old blind rockstar. He said, “Think of the stories you could tell, Mom.”

So..they will be off on the hunt for those two things today. Converse slip-on shoes, and those oh so important sunglasses.