An update on my grandmother.

I'm not sure whether I have good news or bad news.

She is still with us and her condition is now completely stable. (As stable as you can get after a stroke at 91, anyway.) But she's far from healthy. And she's in an old folks' home needing help with everything - exactly what she never wanted. My mother came home on Sunday, I was there when she arrived ... she was upset, which is hardly to be wondered at. Not a quivering mess in any way, though. In a relatively good mood, all things considered, but obviously with something weighing on her. She was so happy to see me ... she cried a bit when I hugged her ... and her mood sort of went up and down through the evening. It's a difficult time for her. For all of us, but for her especially. It's her mommy. :-(

Apparently my grandmother is strangely optimistic; she seems to think that with some training and exercise she'll be pretty much back to her old self and will be able to go back home and carry on as usual. That's good IMO, that she's optimistic. But it's pretty far from reality, or so my mother says. Her eyesight has been damaged, she has trouble seeing well enough to eat, and she has trouble sitting up straight, she keeps leaning to one side ... so clearly there's been some damage done by this stroke. I feel so bad for her. She thinks she'll be able to recover pretty well. But my mother doesn't. To the point that coming back home this time she'd brought some things from my grandmother's house with her. Plants, mainly. She gave me two cacti that my grandmother's had for years. She said that there's no reason that the plants shouldn't live for a while longer. :-(

It's so sad to think that we've already started emptying out my grandmother's house. My mother is sure that she'll never live in it again. I hate that thought. But what can I do.

This coming weekend we're going up there to visit her. My parents and me. We'll be staying in the empty house :-( and visiting her in the home. I both want to go and don't want to go. I want to see her, but not like that ... :-(

And the Secret, which we'd hoped was starting to make its way out of its dark little dungeon at long last, is of course as securely under lock and key as ever. Talk about people creating problems for themselves ...