Sunday, November 6, 2022

Sunday, November 6, 2022

I noticed some numbness on the bottom of my left foot last night. It suggests I will have the same problem with that foot as with my right one- hammer toes. The ones that curl under aren't too much of a problem. It's when the second toe starts crawling over the first that the fun begins. That can be crippling. It was for my grandmother. The podiatrist told me it's inherited. My grandmother's hammer toe was triggered when she was a young adult. I managed to put off mine until eighty-one. The doctor told me to wear either Crocs or Oofos because of their soft soles. He didn't mention closed shoes or arch supports. I don't know if those shoes wouldn't make much difference or because recommending closed shoes to someone living in Hawaii is like spitting into the wind.

 I thought I saw Lina, a woman I knew through the church who was there for me when Mike went into the ICU. I barely knew her at the time. When they took Mike away to the ICU for the first time, I called John Coughlin, the head of the diaconate training program with which 

Mike was involved. I felt a good connection, although I had only known him briefly. I said, "They just took Mike to the ICU. I can't be alone." He said he would be there as soon as possible. The next thing I knew, there was a woman by my side who I didn't recognize. It was Lina. She lived close to the hospital and was at home. John called her. She was by my side in a shot. I couldn't fully appreciate it at the time. I was treading water, drowning while still breathing easily. Lina didn't leave my side until John and his wife Kathy arrived. John and Kathy stayed until Damon, Mike's son, and his ex-wife, Damon's mother, arrived.

  I knocked on the glass door separating me from the woman I thought was Lina because she was inside the church and I was on the outside lanai. I signaled to the woman and asked if she was Lina. She nodded yes. I expressed gratitude for what she had done for me.

  I stopped at Target after church to check their stash of Hershey's milk chocolate nuggets with whole almonds. They had replenished it. Yay! I picked up another four 10 oz. packages. I also bought another bottle of Nature's Miracle to clean stains on my lanai carpet and a bottle of Mayonnaise. I discovered I was almost out when I made a tuna fish salad the other day.

   Yvette came out to greet me as I came home from church. She returned from a weeklong trip to Portland, Oregon, for her father's eightieth birthday. Her whole family lives there now, and her uncle Warren came from California to join the party. I got news about all the siblings. Her dad wasn't doing that well. He sounds tired of dragging his body around. Oh, well.

   I had the M & W sisters later in the afternoon. I worked on the Question game" with second-grade M, as requested. I had difficulty because the language was awkward, and I didn't know how to ask clarifying questions.

     Sixth-grade W and I talked a bit about the end of The Westing Game. Then we talked about the upcoming book, Out of the Dust. I asked her if she knew what blank verse was. Yes, her teacher had already talked about it. I asked her how much homework she had. Basically, none. They are not even allowed to take their books home from school. They're supposed to do everything in class. They do write answers to questions. The teacher corrects their work for grammatical errors. I'm just grateful I have Grammarly. I am astounded by how many errors I make and miss on the first edit.

   Josh came up and went over their will. Their first will Josh made using a form from the Internet. For this one, they consulted an estate lawyer. I have been looking for a way to protect my right to residence should they die before me. They did an amazing job. I couldn't have asked for more.

  As I expected, when they told the lawyer they wanted to build protection for me into their will, she asked who I was. It sounded like I was a little old lady who had been nice to Yvette in a time of need. She was naturally skeptical. The kids explained that Mike and I bought this house with them, and they had a moral obligation to me.