I have to be honest. After last week’s call, I didn’t think I’d have a post to write this week. But, like the rest of 2020, it’s full of surprises, and Maga rallied and here we are.
Caregiver M answered the phone and let me know Maga’d had a shower and, while back in bed, she was awake and was “twirling her hair” so the speaker phone was turned on.
“Hi, Maga! It’s Abby!”
“Hello, dear.” Her voice was tired, and yet, alert. “Where are you?”
“In [state]. At my mom’s house.”
“It’s a good state. I spent a lot of time there.”
“You did, indeed!” I was fairly blown away by her recall.
She faded, so I reached for a tried and true topic. “Did you get much sun today?”
Her chuckles came through weakly. “Oh, no. I don’t ever have any fun.”
“What about sunshine? Did you get outside today?”
“No.”
“A big snowstorm is headed our way tomorrow!”
“Is it?”
“We’re going to get a lot of snow, but my dad has a snow blower, so that means I don’t have to shovel. I’m pretty excited about it.”
“A what?”
“My dad has a machine that cleans the driveway.”
“Where are you?” Maga asked.
“At my mom’s house. I’m here for the holidays.”
“Oh.”
I tried for a new tactic. “When you were young and had a Christmas tree in your living room, did you put white lights or colored lights on it?” (Reader: I had to reword this question a couple of times, but she got there eventually.)
“Colored lights on the tree,” she said.
“Me too!”
“It’s tradition and I like the colored lights showing.”
I tried to explain that it’s a big argument between colored light bulbs vs white lights. She didn’t fully follow, but as we’re all aware of life in quarantine, sometimes, the sheer act of showering takes all your energy and you don’t have anything left in the tank for a phone call. We spoke a little longer, but I didn’t want to tax her too much.
A casual conversation sprinkled with a few new details was a thousand times more than I even dared to hope for last week, so I hung up with a huge smile on my face.
Abigail Mumford 