Sunday, July 21, 2024

 Sunday, July 21, 2024

    The family planning to hire me wasn't in church again today.  They said they would be gone for three weeks. I thought they would be back by today. Hope they are all okay.

   Beth, who serves as a greeter and collects the donations, asked me if I knew what was happening with Claire. Claire is an elderly woman who was dropped off at church every Sunday by a driver from the Regency Retirement Home. When Claire does come to church, she is usually late, arriving just before communion. The driver places her wheelchair on the lanai as close to the front of the church as he can. Claire usually falls asleep.  I knew another resident of the Regency came to the 9 am mass.  I told Beth I would ask her about Claire.

   Patsy said she wasn't attending church because the Regency felt she needed constant monitoring.  Her mind was failing her.  I told Patsy I'd try to arrange for someone at the church to monitor her. I asked TJ. She said no way. The church couldn't risk the liability. If the doctors at the Regency thought she couldn't go out, that was it. 

   As I said, Claire always came to church well into the mass. I blamed the driver for not getting her there in time. Then I saw that he dropped off Patsy in plenty of time for the start of the mass. I asked Patsy what was going on. Rather than being negligent of Claire's needs, Robert, the driver, made an extra effort for her. While Patsy was ready to leave in time for the 9 am mass, Claire was not.  Robert returned to get her, making an extra trip.

   A gorgeous Bismarck palm adorns my front yard. The fronds are huge and silver-blue. Dean told me the tree came from Madagascar and was named the Bismarck because of its stately nature.  It produces these golf-sized, inedible nuts. The gardener asked if I wanted the 'chandeliers' cut down. I thought they were decorative. They were as long as they were on the tree. But they're designed to fall to the ground, break down, and germinate new trees. My yard is a mess with these decomposing brown nuts. There must be a thousand, at least. I decided to get rid of them. I pick them up one at a time and collect them in plastic bags. When I have three or four filled to a weight I can still deal with, I take them to the transfer station and dump them in the garbage instead of the green waste. I empty the bags down the shoot. The nuts roll down the ramp into the container. I save the bags for the next load.

   Adolescent D set our time at noon for today. He didn't respond when I signaled that I'd sent the link. It was one o'clock before he was ready to get online. I don't mind the delay; I'm working from home, and he's a seventeen-year-old boy. Sleeping in is what they do. We must work out a better communication system, so I'm not sitting at the computer waiting.

   Today, I learned that M, who is going into fourth grade, will be attending a private school this fall. Moreover, this private school is on Oahu, while her family home is on the Big Island. Dad's job is here, on the Big Island. He won't be moving to Oahu. I called her dad after the session. Her mom got a job with the state on Oahu. She and the girls would be living with the dad's mother. Both the girls, M and her older sister W, who must be going into ninth grade now, will be attending the new school. 

    W was a student of mine. Along with M. W., she went to Hawaii Preparatory Academy. She did spectacularly well.   I wonder how she's feeling about leaving that school where she was a star and starting in a new one. 

   M is doing well. There are still some weird glitches in her thinking. When I spoke to her dad, he said she has been steadily gaining confidence and reasoning better. I teach thinking skills. They were taught to me, so I know they can be taught. Her dad apologized for not telling me sooner. He said she would continue working with me during the transition and then as needed. 

  Several of my students are doing much better, and the parents no longer feel they need my tutoring. I can't argue with that. Besides M, Adolescent D's reading is much improved. The question is, what are his plans for the future. He will need continued assistance if he wants any education after high school. If that's not the case, his reading is good enough to serve him for the rest of his life. His mom asked if he could continue to improve on his own.  I said yes, but he has to do the work. He won't. 

  Working at Costco is a wonderful choice for D.  He is so happy there. I have never heard that contentment in his voice about any other activity or relationship. His mom wants something more creative for him. Life as a creative person, actor, painter, musician, or videographer takes self-motivation. I would give D a 1 in that department at a rate of one to ten. When it comes to going along with the program, I'd give him an eight out of 9. While he never deliberately worked on the skills I gave him, he allowed me to lead him through them whenever we met. Something sunk in through the repetition. But it would have gone so much faster had he done something on his own. This boy will do well in a structured environment where he is told what to do, and it requires minimal initiative.