September 8

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

On Rosh Hashanah, Mom and the kids arrived near nine o’clock. While they were there, Carrie-Bri contacted Collette to request that Mom pick up a get well card and a package of horehound candy on the way home for Grandma Snicketts. Her back had been so bad lately, that she could hardly move. Grocery shopping and laundering had been impossible.

Then, within the hour, Mom got a call from Carrie. Grandma had requested that, at their convenience, she be taken to the hospital. And as they all knew, Grandma Snicketts was one of the last to complain about pain. It must have been rather bad. So they were back out the door to see what could be done for Grandma’s back.

Meanwhile, Collette and Puck took a walk before the day warmed up too much. Puck said hello to the barking dogs and whining cats, running along in his flip-flops and examining any oddities along the way.

In good news, Collette’s eye, which seemed to have been dispossessed of an operative tear duct for several days, was quickly healing.

On Monday, when Theodore had heard that her tear duct was swollen, he said, “Oh, see, she’s done it out of sympathy for me and my hand.”

Word came in later that evening that Grandma had suffered from a compression fracture. How long it had been like that, who could say, but perhaps from a fall she had had years ago, and her back never properly healed.

OLeif was out with his buddies again that evening, so Collette rounded up some turkey sandwiches. And it was the usual for Collette: laundry, writing books, and a new BBC series: Wild at Heart. That same old rhythm…

As Puck fell asleep, he called to Collette listening to a sermon in the other room. “Mama! Could you please turn that up? I can’t hear the service, that man talking.”