A long-time neighbor and early caregiver for Lynne when she lived home visited her. She kindly shared it.
Ok, here is my recounting of my visit with our sweet Lynne!
I arrived on the second floor to find that Lynne was in the salon, getting her nails done, so I waited a few minutes for her to come down. I saw her come around the corner before she spotted me; as soon as she saw me standing there, she got a big smile on her face and let out a classic Lynne chuckle. We hugged for a good long time, and I handed her the flowers as we talked about the peony bushes she had in her old yard.
She decided she wanted to go sit outside on the deck in the shade for us to visit. I asked some questions about her nails and her day, then I asked if she wanted to listen to some music. She perked up when I played some Cat Stevens and Stevie Nicks songs, all of which she sang along to, smiling a little, looking at me as I sang, and also not remember all of the lyrics!! I held her hand and patted her leg while we sang and listened.
I also showed her some photos on my phone of our kids when they were younger and reminisced with some stories….one was the time C, her youngest boy, cut his head sledding and my husband drove them to the emergency room thru the snow. Her eyes brightened up as she seemed to recall that crazy night.
I told her a story about my son taking a girl to Dicks for burgers recently and that C. was working, but only gave my son a knowing wink, so as not to embarrass him or the girl. Lynne was looking at me while I was telling that story, and she saw me wink, imitating what C did… That story got a good chuckle.
I showed her the video of me dunking my chickens and she thought it was silly and funny – who dunks a chicken in a bucket of water?! (People who have to cool off their chickens in 100-degree heat.)
We talked about Jim’s 80th birthday and her sister and brother’s anniversary.
I asked her some open ended questions occasionally, but she mostly didn’t have answers. We went back to the salon to see if she could get her nails finished (they stopped mid-manicure for my visit), but some one else was there. We went back down to the community room and she had a few sips of a berry smoothie. We visited for a few more minutes, I showed her a photo of a strawberry pie I’m making tomorrow which she thought looked good.