Latest Visit

Becca visited Gordon Saturday and found him mostly the same. He can still get around, but seems a little more distanced from reality. He still has his entertaining personality. Becca said his language was a little saltier than usual. His skin is becoming thinner and more transparent.

Nancy, Russ and Becca visited Gordon after the funeral of Paul de Payne, the husband of Marion's cousin Arlene Godfrey Payne. Gordon was having a good day and sat on the couch in the big room visiting with them for half an hour. He was awake and lucid with only occasionaly asking who Russ was. It is always intertaining to watch him interact with the women who come in the big room and most of the time he just chuckles at their antics. One woman thought Russ and Becca were from a town near Vernal and asked about all the people she used to know. Gordon is good to answer any questions you ask him but doesn't offer many comments to start conversations. He does love small children and adores when people bring babies for him to hold. He like to be sung to and when Kaisa ( his great grand-daughter) played the piano he commented that he had died and gone to heaven.

Becca visited Gordon on Thursday and he would not get out of bed to even eat lunch. He did enjoy the accordian player that was there for half an hour and kept commenting on how nice the organ sounded. He did keep asking the ladies to not sing so he could hear the organ better but they ignored him and just kept singing their own song and their own words. She stayed for an hour and sang to him and he seemed to enjoy that. He said he goes to the Temple once a week and that it is his goal to feel better so he will be able to go twice a week. As long as he is going is his mind I think it is a lovely place to be. He is getting weaker and weaker and this day Becca was Marion.

December with Poinsettia

Today I checked on him and found him sitting in the big room with the TV and a bunch of ladies sitting around. Only one tried to interact. She came over and provided quite a bit of entertainment. She kept trying to give Gordon advice as if she were his mother. She was very expressive and showed quite a lot of energy and drive, except that no phrase matched the next phrase. Gordon just asked her "What?" and just waited for her to go away. The mothering lady then went to "supervise" someone else and got into quite an argument when the next person wouldn't follow her instructions, rather she told the would-be mother to "go talk over there." Gordon just smiled, watching the whole argument. He said that it's entertaining just to watch all the people. He seemed to remember both me and Becca today, but he usually has referred to Becca as "Martha" lately.

They send a schedule each month that I thought some of you might enjoy. Mondays include ornaments, Polar Bear Craft, Creative Dance, Photo Frames, Christmas Movie and New Years Eve Party. Tuesdays: Ageless Fitness Wednesday: Edible Snowmen, Christmas Cookies, Programs, Ginger Bread Houses, Games. Thursday: Bingo and Christmas cards. Friday: Ageless fitness and games. Wow, with fun like this each day we should all be trying to get into this place. I will let you know what the new year will bring in the way of fun.

He is eating a little better, 3 glasses of milk each meal. Vegetables and bread occasionally but always the dessert. Watching the 'others' eat though would put anyone off the feed. YUCK.

When we were with him in the hospital he was totally aware of who we were and his surroundings. He made a lot of jokes with the staff at the hospital and kept telling the xray tech that she drove his bed like a drunk driver. He was the entertainment to all the other people that were there that night. He said he appreciates all the visits he gets from the grandkids and hopes he is not a burden.

He prayed to Heavenly Father when he fell that he would heal quickly so he could go back to the Temple again. But he thinks the big room in the home is the temple because that is where they take him for church. He is good to go to church and loves family home evenings. The post cards are great! Thank you to all who are sending them. They staff loves to read them to him.

Now Gordon is up and watching TV in the lounge area. He recognized me immediately when I walked in, and became animated only when I asked enough questions to get him responding. Otherwise he would still drift off, just like the way he used to watch football games through his eyelids. At the time they were watching "Gone with the Wind" on TV and his only comment on that was that there was too much kissing. When I asked about his wheelchair, he said it was "worth a million dollars." Before his falls no amount of coaxing could get him to use it.