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When we leave Kohala we usually take an early afternoon flight in order to have time to close up the house and do a dump run. While I was doing the dump run I saw Mom's friend Pat; she and her husband, Travis, stopped by the house as I ran one final errand. We had lunch in Kona on the way to the airport. When we got to Honolulu it was late afternoon and Dad was glad to see us!
Much of this trip was spent observing. How much was Mom forgetting? Was she repeating activities? Was she cooking and when she did was she able to remember all the steps that were needed? Was there lots of unopened mail? Could she still remember her e-mail password? Could she find things she did not use often? Was she taking her medication regularly and able to fill her pill pack without help? And more.
I also checked to see if there were house repairs that were needed and either tried to repair them or make arrangements to repair them if it was something I could not do. But Mom insisted that she would have them taken care of after I left. So I left them undone. I also checked to see what was in the refrigerator and freezer. Were there many things past their expiration dates? Was there a lot of food getting moldy? Were there unusually large amounts of items? I also checked the pantry for the same kind of thing.
While I was there, their friend Stanley stopped by for a visit. Stanley and his wife, Min, had lived in a house near Mom's parents house in Kohala. The day before we arrived in Kona, Min had died at a hospital in Honolulu. This had affected Mom while in Kohala since Min and Stanley would visit them when they were there. (Pat was also a friend of Min's so that was a positive meeting for Mom.) Stanley had stopped by on his way to the airport, he was moving to California so that his daughter could take care of him; Min had been his primary caregiver.
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| Dad, Stanley, Mom |
The other thing I did was check around the yard and garage for other signs, as well as to look for hazards. Mom was still pretty stable with walking but Dad has a bad limp from an injury he sustained in World War II. I found several areas where there were grade changes or uneven surfaces. I also checked out what plants were producing fruits; the jabon was full! Jabon is also known as pomelo or Japanese grapefruit.
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| Jabon (Citrus maxima) |
I had originally not intended to go to Honolulu and had made our reservations to come and go via Kona. I thought Dad would be there on the Big Island, too, so I would not need to go to Honolulu to see him. However, according to Mom he had stopped making the trip a long while back. I think the stairs down to the shower had become too much for his injured leg to handle. So we added the trip to Honolulu, but since it would cost us a whole lot more to rebook the flight to leave out of Honolulu, on our last day we flew from Honolulu to Kona to Kahului to Honolulu and finally to Seattle!
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