Archive for January 11th, 2010

Even last year, Wayne could rip off duct tape and help me with boxes.

Christmas trees are always a dreaded chore and I walk around the fallen tree, wonder how I’ll get it in the box and go on to something else – as if that helps.

Anyway, today I boxed up one tree and by holding the box between the dresser and my legs, managed to duct tape it to death. Then I heard the dreaded “pop” and the tape was lifting.

Sat there a moment and then I remembered his tie downs from the work shop! Voila! Duct tape and tie downs work perfectly – - – only 2 more trees to wrestle.

I’ve mentioned that Wayne used to wear 2 wrist watches sometimes. One he received from his employer at 20 years and one from my Mom as a gift – this gift watch had quit working.

Being his name is engraved on the one watch, I slipped the gift watch off his wrist after he was admitted permanently.

We had taken the gift watch to be serviced and the fellow told us it would not help to put a new battery in as the interior was all corroded. Kind of was sad as he liked it and it was from Mom.

Anyway, I set the watch to the correct time and wore it home. My heart skipped several beats that evening when I saw it was keeping perfect time – and still is.

I believe Wayne can still read sometimes. The last few months at home he had no interest in the comics, usually his favorite section. He rarely picked a book up and if he did, he held it as if he were “looking after it” and then set it down shortly.

Some days he would surprise me and read a headline or whatever.

Deep down I feel it’s his connection, still, to a past of reading. We’d spend hours together in bed reading or in his den.

He got one of those cartoon yearly calendars several years ago and I took it to the care home. When he was on the “intense” ward, I’d read the cartoon to him and show him the picture. He’d laugh a lot.