Kona watching out for our precious items as the truck is unloaded.

Stalls are almost ready for horses.

We have had movers scheduled for over six months. At the last minute it occurred to me the moving van might be too tall for our gate. Thank God I checked because it was too tall and we would have been walking items from the road.  As dusk fell last night the movers had found a truck to rent under the 13 foot max that the gate allowed.

Lauren and I were off to bed early last night exhausted by the tearing down of furniture, final packing and preparing the horses to leave.  At this point most of our stuff was already moved. I had no phone charger, so I took my phone to the car to charge.

As I awoke at my usual time this morning to feed the dogs and horses, I went and checked on my cell phone in the car. I was surprised to see six missed calls.  From the phone number it was clear they were all from Elmcroft the nursing home where my mother is. The first message I got which remember is in the opposite order in which they came was -you need to pick your mother up at the emergency room. The second message was your mother has taken an ambulance to the emergency room.  The third one was your mother had a fall earlier tonight and we are taking her by ambulance to the emergency room and the very first one was your mother fell but is okay.

I was horrified, felt guilty and was terrified that she wasn’t okay. She had broken her left arm right above the elbow. They had her back at the nursing home and I was headed that way in a fine rage first thing this morning.  We are totally out of our morning routine and nothing is the way that it normally is. And I wasn’t functioning in any way that was good or straightforward. So I threw my car into reverse to hurry to the nursing home.  I smashed into Lauren’s car which was parked directly behind mine.  The damage wasn’t bad but it was certainly significant for an almost new car or at least new to us.

I got to the nursing home to find her already dressed which I didn’t understand how they did, in the dining room trying to eat some food. She was certainly better than I had anticipated. I remembered Ally and how much horrible pain she had been breaking her arm earlier this year.

I am angry because I have a sitter that stays with her each evening and is supposed to get her back to her room and to bed. But the sitter had to leave early to get a check in the bank and so she wasn’t there when mom came back from dinner. I think the people at the nursing home didn’t know that she went to bed so early and had left her sitting up in the chair.  She was found laying on the left arm next to the chair.

Anything we tried to do seemed very, very difficult for her. Even trying to get her to the bathroom with just one good arm and the other one so painful was extremely difficult.

Since it was the day the movers were coming there was no way I could stay. The nursing home administration quickly found a sitter to coming to stay with her all day long because someone had to keep an eye on her. It was horrible to leave her so little with such a big cast just by herself on the bed.  Prayers are gratefully requested.

In the end the movers came. We packed up almost every single thing in the little green house. We left the dogs and the horses behind and made another trip back to Richmond. It took a long time to get all the things in the house. And we were very happy when our friends Tracy and Amanda came and brought us lunch after our horrible day.

Lauren and I drove back down to Wharton to see my mom again late in the afternoon. I think she had had as good a day as she could with the sore arm aching and aching. The sitter had arrived for the evening and we stayed with her little over an hour as she quietly laid on the bed. She just didn’t seem to understand and would occasionally move her arm to and flinch with the pain.

When we got back to the new house it was almost dark. It would be the first night we would both sleep in our beds with our furniture and three of the dogs. Lauren  and I walked out to the barn with the dogs to see what progress had been made on the barn and the fences. The barn looks so good and is almost ready for occupants. Two of the pasture fences have been completed as well. That was a very happy note on which to end this very sad day for us.