Saturday January 12, 2008 Saturday is for Rest. Right? Uh, Uh

What a Saturday!
I have a sinus infection again, my third one this season. Not good.
However following a MD's advice I have been drinking tea with honey and milk.
Has to be decaffeinated and it seems to be reducing the infection. I am also taking a lot of Vitamin C-1500 mg a day and zinc. I really do not feel too badly today. Coughing because of the drainage.

However if it remains locked in I will go to the MD's on Monday because I have just gotten notice that my mother's sister Irene 87, now in hospice, is approaching imminent and I may be heading to Detroit for a service this week. I have offered to preside at the service which will be very small. Aunt Irene has no living children and her grandchildren are away. It will be Aunt Theresa the only remaining sibling of my mother her son and my sisters and I. I am thinking we could actually do the service in the evening as that might permit a couple of my nephews and family to attend. Of course maybe because Irene is going to be buried, family may want to do it during the day so they could also go to the cemetery. Not sure on this we will have to see. Some times it is good to be a hospice chaplain with my experience at presiding and working to arrange funerals.

Earlier in the day, I presided at the service of the father of one of the condo owners where I used to live. He was 95 and had lived a good long life seeing his great granddaughter. I was so jealous as I have no pictures of my father's side of the family or his growing up. They had all kinds of memory items-his wonderful booklet from his baptism in Germany; pictures and plans of his family's florist business on the west side of Chicago at the turn of the century. A joke (the actual cat Sue played it for us) he played on his CNA-he bought a mechanical cat that mewed, arched its back and eyes flashed. One morning he set it up when his room was dark and started it when the CNA walked in. She yelled! and he had a good laugh. This was a few months back. It was a very nice service, about 50 folks friends and family to support Sue and Bill who recently retired from teaching over 35 years in the Chicago schools.

I am going to email the service to my family members so they can "think about what we should do for Aunt Irene." It is a good basic Christian service.

Then I came home and made some salmon patties that my mother used to cook for dinner. However I used too much butter to cook them in and did I get sick to my stomach! yecch once on a low fat diet, must stay on the diet. Got nauseated. Took Tums. I washed the dishes, listened to Garrison Keillor-favorite on the radio. He ran old shows and this one had Molly Ivans from Austin, now deceased. She sure could tell a Texas political story like no one else! I had the privilege of seeing her the summer before she died.

To top off this crazy Saturday, I got a call from a hospice patient. I had given her my home number because I thought she would be discharged tomorrow. I had wanted to stay in touch is I had offered to preside at her funeral service. ALL of the plans were finalized, except...her daughter cannot move her tomorrow. So she called me and said, "I have to unpack. I have to stay another week." "Oh, no" was my unspoken response. So we will "patch" the week of support together as best we can. I left a message for the hospice administration and staff so they can untangle the situation on Monday. Thank goodness I don't have to work Monday:-) Other staff will have to do contend with the "off again/on again of service delivery."

So one patient heading to death, one patient now back on service, one memorial service completed...What a hospice chaplain's Saturday. I thought I was going to take the day off to help myself recover from the infection!

House still in a mess from Christmas and before. Maybe tomorrow if I am lucky I can dig in and do some major clean up before I have to leave town.

PS Divorce Note: I began paying on my Medicare insurance have part A and part D; need part B supplement. Have an application into AARP, but haven't got the paperwork yet. Final settlement sent to Dow's lawyer before Christmas. Haven't heard anything back so we wait until Dow decides to counter-propose, settle, whatever. Negotiate, go to different judge to get it signed and I am off on my own for the very first time in my life at age 65. I think we are looking at a 2/2008 date now. I don't think they can turn it around that fast as my lawyer said we would have to meet prior to setting court date where Dow does not have to attend. Then Dow and I have to do the financials, the lawyer said sometimes it is a hassle trying to split the IRA's. As the managing agencies each have their demands on what must be produced for evidence, etc. Say a prayer it all goes well.