Collin County Living Well Magazine July/August 2017 | Page 35

so at 55 she was a widow living in Grand Prairie, Texas.
She lived there alone for many years, helped us with our
family and other people with theirs. She served churches
and The Seven Hundred Club. For years I asked my mom
to plan ahead. She assured me when she got older, and
fading, she would curl up her toes and die. It did not hap-
pen that way.
Thanks to months of gathering documentation, hiring a
couple of experts, filling out the forms, filing those forms,
following up, more documentation and a couple of inter-
views, and my father’s service in the Army Air Corp, she
qualified for the VA benefit.
I still visit her regularly, not that she recognizes me, but I
remember who she is. The staff, along with hospice care,
knows I’m coming to see her and
to check up on the facility and
How does someone end up in
the staff. Yes, it is painful, but I
remember my mom was there for
a Memory Care Unit? Almost
me when my brother and I were
everyone I’ve talked to does
helpless, and she attended my
not want to go to the
father’s needs while he was dy-
ing of cancer.
I called her every day and visited
her often, bought her one of those
“Help I have fallen down and can’t
get up necklaces and bracelets.”
It came with a key holder for the
front door so the Emergency Medi-
cal Technicians could ring the
doorbell and gain entrance to her
home. She enjoyed vising with the
EMTs. One day she, who could not
easily walk from one side of her house to the other, decided
to walk to Kroger’s. (Yes, we asked her to move in with us
and she refused. We also took her to assisted living places
and she refused to go there too.) She did not make it to
Kroger’s. Instead she went to the hospital. They called me.
Wow, were they happy to locate me.
laughing academy.
She went from the hospital, to the rehab place, to Ava-
lon Quarterway. She has been there since October 2013.
Not the happiest of stories––
sorry! I recommend planning in advance and realizing
that in time our memory and the ability to care for our-
selves may pass. If it does happen, with a little luck and
assistance, care may be available.
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COLLIN COUNTY Living Well Magazine | JULY/AUGUST 2017
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