Busy Saturday

Well, it's Saturday. Yesterday we did go to Independence to take Leslie to lunch and took Scott went with us so he could visit with his sister. This afternoon, we will go out to the new house and see what progress this week has brought.

Last night we rented the movie "W" and saw the Oliver Stone rendition of George W. Bush. He portrayed him fairly accurately, I believe. Kind of a ne'r do well son who couldn't get anything right....even this endless war....Cheney and Rumsfeld's war. They hoped to build an Empire like Rome with oil as it's axis. And they needed a kind of dumb stooge to do it since neither of them was electable. Well, the American people are not that stupid. They finally figured it out. Weapons of mass destruction! Sure...we all know how many were found.

We also rented "Milk" but none of us could watch it. It was just too explicit.

Tonight we will take Scott to Tavern on the Plaza...his favorite restaurant here. He then has a date over to Caney at Short Creek with a Tulsa girl from Caney.

On an entirely different note, day before yesterday I had a call from the nursing home that Ivan is now living in. Ivan is an elderly member of our church. They had taken him to Fredonia last week for a "mental evaluation". He is 88 and pretty fragile. They brought him back from Fredonia Tuesday and told him his very best friend, a woman named Nadine, could no longer visit him. Nadine sometimes came to church with Ivan before he was put in the nursing home by his stepson.

So when he was returned, Nadine was no longer going to be able to visit him. She had even received a letter from the doctor who evaluated him telling her that. Nadine is his only connection with his reality. Plus they also took his telephone away from him. He hates living in the nursing home. He has a mute roommate there and he values his privacy. It must be a nightmare. It would be for me. So, he had them call me. When I learned the situation about Nadine, I told them that he would never be even minimally happy in that nursing home if Nadine was denied access to him. They have been friends for years. I was horrified that they would do such a thing. Bob and I went right up there. We told them to call that doctor and tell him what I had told them on the telephone. They said they had a call into him but did not think they could reach him until yesterday. So, after lunch yesterday Bob and I went out there. I asked about the doctor and they said Nadine was there with Ivan right then. We went right down the hall and visited with both her and Ivan.

Then I went in to see the administrator and thanked her for taking care of that for Ivan. She told me not to blame the stepson. She said the stepson had gone the second mile to take care of Ivan.

When I got home, I found I had a call on the answering machine from Ivan's niece. She told me a lot of interesting things about the stepson. I knew Ivan wanted to change his power of attorney and that's why they ordered the "mental evaluation". Ivan is sharp for 88. His stepson has told others that he has Alzheimer's Disease and that simply is not so. He knows me and everyone else and he has a lot of telephone numbers in his head. He may be getting a little dementia from old age but he is sharp.

She told me that Ivan's stepson does not like Nadine. He fears that she will get some of Ivan's money. When Ivan had surgery several years ago, she and Ivan's stepson waited together in the surgery waiting room and the stepson said to her, "You know Ivan has nearly $100,000 and that will be mine when he is gone". She said she told him they needed to pray that Ivan came through the surgery all right and not be worried about his money.

So, this is an example of just some of the things that can happen to us as we get old. I told my kids that no one had better put me in a nursing home or I would cut them out of my will. (like I had anything to cut)

A power of attorney is appropriate for someone who has lost their ability to make their own decisions. Ivan is not in that shape. He does need to be in a nursing home somewhere. He can no longer care adequately for himself. But I think he needs to be in one where he can have his own room and some privacy.