Darling will be in the hospital another week. His pneumonia is not gone and they are giving him more drip antibiotics. Believe me this is good news. They were telling us he would leave soon and they recommended going to an interim facility for physical therapy before going home. I kept trying to tell them he gets sundowners and does not do well when I am not around. They kept just not taking it in and telling me how great the care was. They would look at this sweet, gentle man sitting up in bed drinking coffee and know I was exaggerating. When Missy, our daughter came in and they told her about the suggestion, she told them she saw it as being a full blown disaster. Drew, our son thought the disaster would be if we took him straight home before his walking was good, he would fall, take me down with him and break bones in both of us. We were in a real quandary. So it is great news to all of us that he will be here another week to practice walking and balance. Also, of course, for the antibiotics.
I have tried not to let the alcohol affect our social life. When we go out in the evening, I drive and I used to hold his hand getting into our destination. Since we fell going into Vetoni’s restaurant I don’t always hold his hand. Coming across the parking lot it was one of those 10 or 12 step falls, more and more out of control – going down – going down – going down – splat. He was holding my hand so hard, I could not get away. Oh yes, I’m that kind of gal; I would have let him go down by himself if I could have gotten away. After all, someone has to stay healthy to take care of him. A young family was coming in at the same time. The father, a mountain of a man wearing starched, creased jeans, cowboy boots and a shirt with the name of one of the local ranches embroidered on the pocket . He picked us up, me first, naturally, after all we are still in Texas. He helped dust us off and put us at ease with a fall story of his own in the pasture and how he looked around to see if anyone saw him, even though he knew no one was around. I told him that at our age we were more thankful for help than embarrassed. Oh yes, I do love East Texas.