Not Yet

November 10, 2017

All the way home, my mind was spinning, thinking of what I would say. It must be the pastor in me. While helping a friend with a small, but important task, the phone rang. “Your mother has fallen. They think she broke her wrist, and possibly her hip. Also a nasty bump on the head.” Linda was relaying the message she had received from my sister-in-law a few minutes before. I hurriedly wrapped up what I was doing, excused myself, and got in the truck for the drive home, where Linda and I quickly threw together a few things for the trip to the Rochester hospital where they had taken mom. 

After about ten hours in ER, she finally got a room where they would keep her overnight for observation. It was midnight before Linda and I got back to my brother’s where we were staying the night. Broken wrist, but her hip and head were OK. There was one slight problem. Mom lives alone, and her apartment has a step up into both her kitchen and her bathroom; as wobbly as she is, navigating her walker with one hand wasn’t going to work, steps or not. We were determined to talk to the social worker in the morning, but knew that it’s harder to get someone into rehab from observation status than as an inpatient.

This morning, when we told the charge nurse that we wanted to see the social worker, she said she would contact her. When we turned around to head back down the hall to mom’s room, the social worker was standing there. She had already talked with mom and decided that she needed rehab. Insurance would cover it. Sarah was an answer to prayer. And yesterday’s self-conversation can be laid to rest for now. You see, I’ve witnessed too many situations where an elderly person falls, and it turns out to be the beginning of the end. I had been putting together mom’s funeral, rehearsing her eulogy in the truck. I am thankful tonight that I don’t have to do that quite yet. Mom may be slow, but she’s tough, and we continue to be blessed by her presence, her prayers, and her love.