Linda L writes:

Saturday, May 4: I dropped in to visit Terry this morning (May the Fourth be with you) and bring her some tulips from my garden.  She was sitting outside the dining room, along with half a dozen others, waiting for the doors to open.  Since we had half an hour before lunchtime, I suggested we go back to her room where it was quieter.  She seemed alert and in good spirits.  She spoke a few words clearly and made short responses appropriately; but the sentences tended to trail off into incoherence.  We looked out the window and commented on all the greening of trees and grass in the spring.  I told her about what I had been doing in my garden.  I tried to open her laptop to look at cat videos, but couldn’t get past the password screen.  Instead, I found one on my phone.  Terry laughed and said it was cute, but after a few minutes got tired of holding the phone and seemed anxious to get to lunch.  We still had 10 minutes until 11:30, so I re-hung her name hat on the door (it was inside the room) and we did a walk-and-roll down the hall and back to the lunch room.  The doors were open, and Terry’s large glass of juice was at her place; so we went in.  She drank all of it before I left.  The main course was a little late in coming, but other people were already there.  I left at about 11:45 to run some errands.

Laramie writes:

Tuesday, May 7: Terry seemed in particularly good spirits; not only did she tell me how much she liked my visits, and the pretty colors of her Galaxy pad case, but she never complained of any pains, nor wanted to hurry along and go somewhere else as she often has in the past. When I arrived, her group of fellow residents was doing exercises and then some chair dancing and singing along to some oldies rock music. We joined in the latter activity, but were sitting apart while I worked on installing the Libby app on her pad. I did an online chat with a helper at the library, trying to find out if she still had a library card account active. They gave me a phone number to call but I just got a recording and will have to try back another time. It would be nice if she could download audio books. She doesn't seem able to read for herself, but has some listening comprehension.

She ate most of her lunch (turkey tetrazzini, carrots, buttered bread & a cookie) while we watched cute and amusing videos of cats and kittens. We looked at some Facebook posts on my phone — she saw pics of Jim's dogs and the new roof he put on his well. When we went down to the bistro, she had an apple and we both had some coffee and enjoyed the sunshine through the windows. I told her my eye was doing a lot better since my doctor had (stuck a needle in my eye!) drained a buildup of liquid from the ocular cavity. After coffee we checked at the front desk, and Terry had a letter containing the latest edition from one of her poetry magazines. We went back to her room and leafed through it - I read off the names of some contributors, and read her a couple short poems, and one I'd saved to my own Facebook page to show her. She kept admiring the display of her earring board and nicely neat desk top that Karen had set up for her.

When it was time for me to go I brought her back out to the area by the nurse's office and let them know she was there. Time for her meds and a lie down.

Friday, May 10: When I found Terry in the activity area near her room, she was seated in her new wheelchair! It is a little more compact, with a tighter turning radius than the old one, and she can easily get through doorways without scraping her arms or hands! We sat aside from the main group for a while; I told her how I'd received notice that Blue Cross was not covering my eye surgeries, and I showed her some cat videos. When the exercise routine started using rock n roll accompaniment, we did a bit of singing along and chair dancing.

We didn't have to wait long for her lunch to be served. I was telling her how I've been thinking about writing stories about time traveling cats — cats from the future can all speak human languages — but was interrupted by the arrival of the food. Terry ate every bite of the breaded fish filet, mixed rice, and broccoli. We went afterward down to the bistro only to discover that the coffee urn was empty. We had some ice water and Terry had an apple while we sat at a table bearing a vase full of lovely deep-pink roses. Probably someone's gift for mother's day. I read to her from Facebook and played some amusing cat videos on her Galaxy pad. The nurse who does wound care for Terry's foot found us and took Terry away long enough to change the dressing for her. We stayed in the bistro for a while after that, then checked at the front desk for her mail (none) and went wheeling around through the downstairs dining room, back to the 4th floor, and around the hallways there. Terry didn't want to go to her room. We sat talking in the area outside the nurses offices until another resident came up, cutting between us. Apparently she wanted the chair I occupied, but just stared at me instead of speaking. I got up and took Terry for another turn around the floor before it was time to leave. The good news was that live musicians were scheduled to come in to play for the residents. I passed a guitarist on his way in and I left the building.