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trouble at the childhood home
Wednesday, November 11 2020
My aunt Barbara in Connecticut called at 8:00am this morning, and I immediately answered, fearing the worst. She said she'd made plans to visit her twin sister (my mother) down in Virginia this upcoming week, but had been unable to confirm this with my mother, who had been unreachable for three days. I wasn't too worried, since I assumed my mother's phone had died and nobody noticed, which is the kind of thing that happens around there. But Barbara was worried, and wanted to know the number of the local hospital in case my mother had ended up there.
After Barbara did some further calling around, I eventually talked to Diedre, Barbara's daughter (and my cousin). She said that there had been a sighting of my mother yesterday, when she'd driven to Waynesboro to clear out an art studio where she has worked for years and has, recently, reportedly failed to pay rent. My mother now refers to herself as "blind," so it's troubling to think she is still driving around. She reportedly had an accident recently that was deemed her fault, and she's having to go to court over it. Also, she's been heard saying things that are clearly untrue, indicating some level of dementia. One of these was that both my brother and I had been in a vehicle she'd been driving. Meanwhile my mother's health had deteriorated. She continues to eat whatever she wants despite diabetes, and now is experiencing kidney failure. Recently a heart monitor was installed, because apparently that organ isn't working too well either. All of this suggests that my mother may have reached the point where she can no longer care for herself. She's still living with my older brother Don, and though he's strong and can see, his insanity renders him unable to care for himself. It's looking like the long-procrastinated decision of what to do with Don (and also, tragically, my mother) is soon going to be upon me. On top of all this is the fact that I haven't been on speaking terms with either Don or my mother for the last seven years. The plan for now is to wait for Barbara to report back on the situation back at my childhood home before deciding what to do next. But Gretchen and I might be driving down there for Thanksgiving.
We had our first rain in some time today, but it was a warm rain and at times I had the doors and windows open, partly due to what I will mention next. Powerful did a laundry today, filling the house with the stench of unfamiliar chemicals, the kind normally one doesn't smell in our largely all-natural household. It turns out he'd been using Tide pods in our washing machine, something we urged him to stop doing. Meanwhile he was cooking us a dinner of Asian fried rice.
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