(Page 3)
Mary [Ekholm] Francis
(c) 1997
�You�re welcome. Mom told me to come out here and get the coffee and tell you girls to stop fighting. She may not get around well or see well, but there�s not much wrong with her ears.�
Carolyn sighed, �She can still hear a pin drop on the other side of town. Carl?�
�Yes?�
�Will you help me keep Mom here for a while longer?�
�No, Carolyn. This house doesn�t provide a safe environment for a woman her age.�
�Lawyer talk!�
�What?�
�Lawyer talk: �safe environment for a woman her age�! Speak English. She�s your mother, for crying out loud!�
�She does that, too?�
Carolyn frowned at her brother. She refused to acknowledge or appreciate his attempt at humor, �She will, if you try to move her out of here.�
�Carolyn, lighten up!�
�Carl, she doesn�t know how to live anywhere else. She and Dad moved into this house when you were just a tiny baby. How can you make her leave now? She�ll die.� Carolyn was close to tears again. She wanted desperately to keep her promise to her mother, but she didn�t know how she could with both Carl and Connie wanting to put Ruth in a home.
Connie poured two cups of coffee and set them on a tray. Then she tossed a handful of sugar cookies onto a small plate and set it next to the cups. As she picked up the tray and headed for the living room, she said to Carl, �See if you can talk some sense into her. I certainly didn�t have much luck.� She glanced at Carolyn, shrugged her shoulders, and walked through the doorway.
�Why does she always tell you to talk sense into me when she wants you to make me think like her? Maybe she�s the one who needs some sense.�
�Me-e-o-o-w.�
�I am not being catty!� Carolyn blushed and grinned. �Well, yes. I am, but it�s okay because she�s my sister.�
Carl laughed and reached out to hug Carolyn again. With his arms still around her, he asked, �Honey, how could you think we would be able to agree with you when we got here and saw how much help Mom needs?� Carolyn tensed and tried to step back, but Carl tightened his hold. �You are here every day. You don�t recognize the big changes in her or the house or the neighborhood because you�ve seen them as a series of little changes over time. Shut your eyes for a minute and picture the way things were five summers ago when everyone was here for the family reunion, and then picture things ten years ago when Mom first had to start using a cane. Go back farther and see her and the house the summer she and Dad celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.�
Carolyn wanted to pound her fists on Carl�s chest and shout, �I know. I know how much she has changed; I�ve watched her slide downhill. I know what shape the house is in. I�ve called plumbers and electricians and furnace men; I�ve taped plastic over the windows in the winter; I�ve trapped mice and put buckets under leaks and gotten estimates for insulation and windows and a new roof. I know what shape the neighborhood is in, too. I�ve been to the funerals of most of the former neighbors, and I�ve been to the garage sales where their lifetime accumulations of odds and ends are disposed of.� Carolyn was too tired to pound or yell. She just leaned against Carl and tried not to cry.
After a few minutes of silence, Carl let go of Carolyn and they each took a half step backward. He pinched her chin gently between his right thumb and forefinger. �Caro, think of what would be best for Mom.� His words broke the big-brother spell he had cast over Carolyn with his sympathy and hugs.
�I am thinking of what would be best for Mom. She wants to stay in her house.�
�She can�t stay here.�
�She won�t leave Andy.�
�She�ll have to.�
�Carl, in the long run, what difference does it make to you if she stays here or not? You know she�d be happier here. And she wouldn�t have to worry about Andy because she�d have that cat right with her.�
�I�d worry about Mom. Connie would worry about Mom. And I bet you�d worry, too.�
�I�d worry more about her in a home full of strangers with no old cat to purr all day long.�
�Carolyn, you are impossible. Mom always enjoyed meeting people and visiting with them. Maybe she would love having a lot of people around, and, once she got to know them, they wouldn�t be strangers any longer.�
Carolyn refused to admit it out loud, but Carl did have a point. As much as Carolyn wanted to help her mother stay in her house, she did sometimes wonder if it was good for her mother to be alone so much. She told herself that, once they hired full-time help for Ruth, there would be more people around for Ruth to talk to. But first she had to talk Carl and Connie into letting Mom stay at home.
�Carolyn?�
�Yes.�
�Connie and I have chipped in on everything you said Mom needed, so you know it�s not money that�s holding us back. Twenty-four-hour care for Mom will be a large expense on top of what the three of us are already paying for a yard man and a cleaning service and a part-time caregiver. We want to be sure that Mom gets our money�s worth from every dollar, and we�re not convinced that the money is best spent in keeping her in this house.�
�What can I do to convince you?�
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