Laramie writes:

Wednesday, May 29 I arrived at the Yorkshire a bit earlier than usual, but still found Terry up and dressed and gathered with the other residents. I stopped first in her room; I forgot to bring her Galaxy pad with me last time, so I'd now brought the charger and found a place to plug it in, right beside her bed. When I joined Terry, I found her drinking juice directly out of the pitcher. An aide saw this, reclaimed the pitcher and poured Terry her own glass of the juice while she and I sat together at a nearby table.

I told her I was there earlier than usual because I'd need to leave earlier to go to an appointment over at 66th & Lyndale. (Near enough that it didn't seem worthwhile to make two separate trips.)

We visited for a while: I shared posts from her Facebook friends after reading her a poem I'd saved for her. It celebrates the odd and weird; she seemed to enjoy it. (By John Roedel; I posted it on my Facebook page for anyone else interested.)

We went to Terry's room and I showed her where I'd plugged her Galaxy pad in to charge and we looked at the settings, so I could make it easier to use the device without assistance. Then we made our way to the area outside the dining room where I asked an aide about Terry's bootie, which was on backward. The nice woman readjusted it. I  shared some Facebook posts: Eleanor had some new birds to show, Karen was reporting from Bucharest with more artwork, and her brother Jim had posted photos of his dog, Quinn, who I keep wanting to call 'the Eskimo.' Plus we watched some amusing cat videos.

Terry ate all of her lunch (chicken in gravy on a biscuit, with baby carrots) and we went afterward to the bistro downstairs. There Terry had an apple and we drank our coffee while enjoying the beautiful day visible through the windows. The day was warm and sunny enough that I took Terry outside for a little while; she chose to sit in the sun at first, but joined me in the shade after that got too intense. We checked for mail at the desk, then wandered back upstairs. I had to remind Terry of my appointment when it was time for me to leave. I'd participated in a clinical trial of an RSV treatment and this was a follow up with that.

Friday, May 31: I arrived shortly before eleven and found Terry seated with fellow residents in the activity area near her room. We withdrew to sit together at a nearby table. I brought out her Galaxy pad and showed her the available apps, and she expressed interest in coloring.  We did a few more mandala drawings before Terry lost interest and wanted to go somewhere else. At first we went to her room where I started her laptop and put on some music for a bit of chair dancing. We'd only done that for a few minutes before Terry wanted to go out again. We went to the area outside the dining room and sat together there. Terry wanted to go elsewhere pretty soon but held on until lunchtime while I read to her from Facebook and showed her funny videos.

Lunch was pork loin in gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, and green beans, with some bread for mopping up the gravy. Terry ate every bit of her meal. I was unable to get her away before they also gave her a mini ice cream cone. We went downstairs to the bistro after that where Terry had an apple — she exclaimed over how good it was. I fixed us both some coffee, though I was having a bout of clumsiness and had to clean up after myself, and knocked over a bud vase containing a silk flower and a lot of glass marbles. Fortunately it did not break, though the scattering marbles drew a lot of attention. Terry helped retrieve marbles, and I found a few more when we were leaving the area. We looked at more FB posts over our coffee, and more videos of talking cats and cats engaged in ridiculous antics. We stopped to check for mail but no one was at the desk.

When we returned to Terry's room I read her a few short poems from the issue of Star Line they'd sent her recently. I'll be attending a filk circle in South Minneapolis tomorrow, and asked Terry if she would like to have the filkers come to Yorkshire to sing filk songs with her. She had no interest, but may feel differently another time. I've also thought it might be fun to have a birthday party there for her if there are enough of her friends who might be interested in attending.

Before it was time for me to depart, we returned to the area outside the nursing offices and looked at some more Facebook posts, including pictures from Terry's sister-in-law Deanne, and watched more videos.