The roof at the nursing home with men working on it.

For the last two days, they have been stripping and re-roofing the roof at the nursing home.  It is only one story so all the rooms have gotten equal and constant pounding.  When I got there yesterday mom was huddled down in her bed with a pillow over her head.  The roofers were directly on top of us.  Each time their hammers would fall it would startle and scare her.

No matter how many times I tried to explain that it was just men up on the roof, working on the roof, she refused to believe me.  She was absolutely and unequivocally convinced that bombs were dropping and we were in grave danger.  We tried walking to the other side of the building where I thought the noise would be less and her fear eased but it really didn’t work because the building is just not that big.  I am sure the plan was to bring as big of roofing crew as possible to get the job done quickly.  And they were accomplishing a lot.  But the continuous raining of blows to the roof was difficult to bear and I knew what it was. I can’t imagine how frightening it would be to not understand what was causing all the havoc.

I left her last night with a promise that it would be dark soon and the crew would quit for the day.  As I drove away that did little to remove the memory of her cringing each time a hammer fell.

Today I received a message that her husband, Jim, had fallen.  He is 95 and the most robust 95 year-old I have ever met.  Then the message was that he was having a CT-Scan of his head.  Now, he is in surgery.  I didn’t want to tell momma what had happened. She wouldn’t understand and would just worry.  Instead I told her of his Facebook message (yes, he has a Facebook page!) of a couple of days ago, saying he wanted to come see her and that he loved her.  She replied that she loved him so much and couldn’t wait to celebrate their birthdays together (his in May and hers in June). I sent back a message that I hope Jim got before surgery telling him his Midgey loved him so!

I hope and pray that all goes well.  I hope this is one bomb my momma does not have to endure.