A Good Day

Today, mom actually had a stable strong day. Lots more visitors today, very few stressful moments and several moments of alertness.

But I'll start with last night.


I mentioned we were starting an around the clock watch. Ken took the first shift. He said being a night owl and on California time he could stay up until two or three AM. I tried to sleep but just couldn't. Near two o'clock, I gave up and relieved Ken. Not too long after that Amy was up with the baby for a feeding. Poor Dad was sleeping with a lamp and music on the whole night, but he says he did get some sleep. He still woke up maybe in the three o'clock hour?  A couple times we gave her some morphine. It's liquid morphine and once I gave her too much too fast and brought about a bad choking fit. Seems like every time she wakes up, I'm apologizing for trying to kill her. I've nearly choked her several times, unwittingly smashed her face into a bed rail and pushed and pulled on her often when trying to get her better situated. I don't think she's amused.

But the nighttime is the worst. I've always hated 4 AM. My grandfather passed away several years ago in the 4 AM hour and soon afterward I read a novel in which a character describe the 4 AM hour as the darkest hour of the night, the hour when old people die. When I was in production, I hated the days I had to be awake and driving to set in the 4 AM hour. Just hate it. So somehow, I felt that if I could see mom through that hour, then she wasn't going anywhere today. Weird right?

I didn't go to sleep until 6 AM and then was up with the housekeeper and first visitors near 9 AM.

This morning I was holding Kiran and decided to take him into mom's room. And her eyes opened! I held Kiran in front of her face and said, "mom, look! It's Kiran!" She made a big "Oh!" face, looked right at him. I swear she said, "I knew it was him." Or something to that effect. Again, several of us came in and we propped Kiran up on her chest. She kept trying to hold him. Ken told Mom about him, "He's got Amy's lips and my nose and we don't know about his eyes yet because they are still coming in."

Every time I think, well that's the last time we'll probably have a decent interaction with her. Suddenly there she is again. She's opened her eyes and recognized her visitor several times today. Way more than normal compared to the past few days.

One time, we were turning her and my cousin Emily had a grip on the pad underneath mom.  But her hand slipped and Mom kind of rocked a bit. "Woah," Emily said and looked at mom, "I almost hit you in the face!" In response Mom smiled a bit and did a little thing with her eyebrows, kind of like a  'yeah watchit' face. So of course that sent us into giggles.

I missed several visitors while I was napping this afternoon, but we have LOVED having so many people come by and talk to mom. Again speaking with 100% accuracy, I can tell she loves it to. I read her a message I received from my best friend in 5th grade. We haven't seen each other in many many years, but she remembered mom with such affection! So many people have contacted us and sent their love.  It's remarkable what an impact Sharon Cron has had on this world.  Whether it was her enthusiasm and creativity or her fearlessness or warmth and "the more the merrier" acceptance of everyone who walked into her house. It's been wonderful to be in the middle of a whirlpool of love for her.

Because she's been so strong today, we are coming off of high alert. We've sent people home and I'm going to sleep in my own room and own bed. We still aren't doing food or liquids, so we still are where we are. But tonight we sleep. Tomorrow we take care of tomorrow.

If you are in town and wondering if you can stop by, the answer is yes. Mom would love to see you.

Also we have more cookies than four grand-children can safely consume so if you're thinking "The Crons need cookies! I will bring them cookies!", let me tell you the Crons need no such thing.

UPDATE: according to my brother in law. We are still accepting cookies.