Can We Do This Without Me?

Well, it has been quite a week.  On Friday Brian’s mother, Sally came to live in our home.  Also on Friday my parents came to visit for 5 days.  The reason for my parent’s visit was to accompany Matthew when he went through the LDS temple for the first time.  That occurred last night and was one of the happiest experiences of my life, se eing my son worthy to enter into the temple of God and make sacred promises of righteousness to Him.

My parents also went to Katrina and Thomas’s play, Beauty and the Beast where Katrina played “the aristocratic lady” and Thomas played “Le Fou.”  The kids did a wonderful job, and my sister, Sarah and her family along with my sister Elizabeth also attended.  Everyone was quite impressed with their work. Miriam was in a festival the day my parents arrived and we got to see her do that, too.  Her choir won for the whole festival!  My parents really enjoyed listening top her sing.  Jon was also at home for the weekend, which was so nice.  He, Brian, Thomas, and my dad worked on Jon's car.  They found out that he needed new tires.  It was deceptive because the treads looked okay, but were coming off of the tire in some places.  Weird.  Anyway, they got new tires.

I don’t know how I would have made it through the last few days if my parents hadn’t been here.  Not only did they help Jon with the cost of the tires, my mom has helped me restore the house to order after the upheaval of switching around rooms in order to make place for Sally, and my dad helped me with the heavy lifting, and since Sally can’t move her left side, there is a lot of that.  I have done more physical work in the past week than I have done for years, and it is quite a chore.

Still, we have had our laughs.  The other day Sally told me about someone who told her to go to “H-E-Double Q.”  I cracked up laughing on the inside.  Then there was the first time my dad and I tried to use a lift to hoist Sally from her bed.  We had no idea what we were doing, and Sally’s conversation rambled aimlessly as we turned and tugged and pushed at her, until she spoke up loudly saying, “Can we do this without me?”  My dad and I laughed quite a bit about that, and I told him that I wanted out, too.  Sally’s question sticks in my mind and I find myself asking, especially when her care becomes a strain, “Can we do this without me?”  It keeps me laughing on the inside.