Ever since mom has been with us my age has shrunk.....virtually. Much to Lekha's annoyance, she gets concerned about even the slightest delay in my return from an errand and the list is endless. Perhaps, advancing age is a contributory factor with her father and husband having passed into the mist of time. A thing that she's insistent upon is that she must get to talk to both my sisters and their families, after her breakfast, every Sunday.
Her use of the telephone is restricted to very personal and urgent calls since she's hard of hearing. The moment the connection is established she tells out her piece....their replies have to be conveyed to her subsequently after any one of us takes the call. I pull her leg saying that in her telephonic activity there's room only for outgoing calls and she laughs it away saying that I'm crazy!
Her day with me begins a trifle after 7 - when she's ready after her bath and sprucing up - to be escorted down the stairs to the ground floor where she says a prayer at the 'puja room', completes her final sprucing up and has her cup of tea. Browse the day's newspapers she must and then it's breakfast time with us, when she tells me about the things that she needs or about matters that need to be looked into and she brooks no delay! Whenever, I go out of the house she keeps a watch through her window till my return and at times, gets hyper if she perceives a delay.
She's regular on her walk in the evenings in the courtyard, for about half an hour under our watchful eyes and it's during those walks that she speaks out about the general cleanliness - pathetic, on most days pointing a finger at Lekha's understudy and gives an account of the activities in the immediate surroundings while greeting the occasional passersby with a snatch of conversation thrown in, where necessary.
The greatest fuss is when I go for my evening walk, when she expects me to return within an hour, latch the gate and slip on the internal bolts of the front door which she has to personally verify after my doing so. It gives me a feeling that she's ensuring that I wouldn't move out without her knowledge because the sliding of the bolts and the other attendant activities would give her the necessary warning(?). I've always wondered as to whether her concerns have stemmed from the fact that she'd seen me leave home quite young to a boarding school and then, beyond.
We break bread together, as I'd said earlier, at breakfast, lunch and the evening teatime while she has an early supper by 9. Her needs are frugal but the temperatures and the quantity of food, that she has, are constants! She watches the television for a while and then is escorted up the stairs to her bedroom and by around 10, she's fast asleep.
.....It's very comforting to have her with us!
Tailpiece.
I remember a doctor friend's advice and I quote, 'Elderly people must have their food and medicines at the appropriate times. More importantly, they should also feel that they're active members of the family'. Hope my mom does feel so at 'The Quarterdeck'!
Her use of the telephone is restricted to very personal and urgent calls since she's hard of hearing. The moment the connection is established she tells out her piece....their replies have to be conveyed to her subsequently after any one of us takes the call. I pull her leg saying that in her telephonic activity there's room only for outgoing calls and she laughs it away saying that I'm crazy!
Her day with me begins a trifle after 7 - when she's ready after her bath and sprucing up - to be escorted down the stairs to the ground floor where she says a prayer at the 'puja room', completes her final sprucing up and has her cup of tea. Browse the day's newspapers she must and then it's breakfast time with us, when she tells me about the things that she needs or about matters that need to be looked into and she brooks no delay! Whenever, I go out of the house she keeps a watch through her window till my return and at times, gets hyper if she perceives a delay.
She's regular on her walk in the evenings in the courtyard, for about half an hour under our watchful eyes and it's during those walks that she speaks out about the general cleanliness - pathetic, on most days pointing a finger at Lekha's understudy and gives an account of the activities in the immediate surroundings while greeting the occasional passersby with a snatch of conversation thrown in, where necessary.
The greatest fuss is when I go for my evening walk, when she expects me to return within an hour, latch the gate and slip on the internal bolts of the front door which she has to personally verify after my doing so. It gives me a feeling that she's ensuring that I wouldn't move out without her knowledge because the sliding of the bolts and the other attendant activities would give her the necessary warning(?). I've always wondered as to whether her concerns have stemmed from the fact that she'd seen me leave home quite young to a boarding school and then, beyond.
We break bread together, as I'd said earlier, at breakfast, lunch and the evening teatime while she has an early supper by 9. Her needs are frugal but the temperatures and the quantity of food, that she has, are constants! She watches the television for a while and then is escorted up the stairs to her bedroom and by around 10, she's fast asleep.
.....It's very comforting to have her with us!
Tailpiece.
I remember a doctor friend's advice and I quote, 'Elderly people must have their food and medicines at the appropriate times. More importantly, they should also feel that they're active members of the family'. Hope my mom does feel so at 'The Quarterdeck'!
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