Accusations

I went up to assist my mother this morning.  She calls for us every morning to let us know that she is awake (as though we didn't know with all of the ruckus she makes as she clomps about and broadcasts the din over the baby...uh...Elder monitor.)  This morning as I walked up the stairs to her apartment, I saw a note on the floor next to a hand vacuum. It was from our son, Bill. I was not wearing my glasses so I squinted slightly as I read the note.  It said, "Grandma was on the stairs this AM.  I didn't want to disturb you."

"Oh no!" I thought.  Mom had exited her room and we slept right through the alarm on the door.  Bill gets off work at around 3:00 AM and found Grandma sitting or standing on the stairs.  He must have quietly ushered her off to bed.  I re-read the note one more time and then opened the door to Mom's bedroom.  "Well!" I exclaimed.  "Bill says that you were on the stairs outside of your room!"

Mom looked at me innocently and a bit confused.  I could tell that she had no recollection of the episode.I wouldn't have pushed it except for the fact that it was so dangerous for her to walk out of the 'safety zone' of her room unescorted.  The stairs were strictly prohibited.  "Mom," I continued. "I can see that you have no memory of this happening but Bill had to send you back to your room.  You absolutely MUST pay attention to the sign on the door."  I pointed at the sign we have hanging on the door that says, 'Do not open this door. Call for us to come get you.'  Mom looked bewildered as I walked her to her bed to help her get dressed.  I continued to admonish her by running through the house rules.  When I was done, I walked downstairs leaving her to put her shoes and socks on and telling her to call when she was ready to come down.  Skip was in the kitchen when I opened the door between our two residences.  I began telling him what had happened.

"I know," he said.  "I heard on the monitor."  Then he shook his head.  "I don't know what we are going to do.  I never heard the door alarm."

"Right!  Exactly!" I agreed.  "Could she have opened the door while we were watching TV and didn't hear it?"

"I don't know. Maybe.  But that would mean that she was on the stairs for hours before Bill found her," Skip pointed out.

We let the subject drop until Mom called for us and Skip went to retrieve her.  When he came back downstairs he mentioned that Bill left him a note about the handheld vacuum.  Then he asked me where his other note was--the one about Grandma.

"I told you.  It was on the floor next to the vacuum."

"I didn't see it.  The only note I saw was about Bill needing to vacuum the stairs."

(Do you see where this is going?)  I frowned at my husband trying to figure out which one of us had gone off the deep end.  Rather than arguing further I walked back upstairs with Skip trailing behind me.  I reached down and picked up the note. "See?  It's right here!" I told him.

"Right!" He answered. It was a little lighter with the sun being fully risen now and the light hitting the paper so as to make it easier for my blind eyes to read.  Skip took his fingers and pointed at the words.  "See?  It says he needs to use the vacuum."

I read the words carefully.  What I thought were initially the words, 'Grandma was...'  was actually, 'Gonna use...'  .  Bill was simply informing us that he needed to use the vacuum on the stairs in the AM and didn't want to disturb us by using it the night before.  "Gonna use on the stairs in the AM" was wrongly read, "Grandma was on the stairs in the AM."

I walked back downstairs eyes to the floor.  I couldn't look my mother in the face.  I had given her a bad time over something she had not done.  Just before I opened my mouth to apologize I thought about the dirty laundry she had retrieved and was preparing to put in her dresser drawers, the whole packet of sweetener she had dropped into her cup of tea, and the locked door she opened after finding the key and using it.  All of these little mishaps were soon forgotten and by the time I spoke of them she did not remember. So, suffice it to say I was prepared to let the entire subject drop.  Skip, however was more likely to remind me of my mistake.  I shot him a look that warned him that we would not speak of this again.  Then I promptly told our daughter, my son-in-law, our son, my girlfriend and am now blogging about it.  I am just grateful that my mother doesn't hear well and doesn't read my blog posts.  Okay, okay.  I made it up to her later by giving her a special treat with her cup of tea.  We're even now!