Chapter 66 - Surprised by an Image

A few days ago I decided I had better scan some old photos borrowed from her Aunt; we hope to visit her again in a week or two. Toward the end of the task I discovered a large photo of a young girl, a hand-tinted studio photo of a 17 year-old taken almost 50 years ago. She is looking into a mirror, so her face is seen in reflection. Blonde hair, small red bow-shaped lips and a little rouge on the cheeks. Her dress is shapely and has vertically striped panels of small blue flowers on white. The dress always reminded me of traditional wallpaper, although I am sure I never suggested that at the time. The sleeves are short, with small cuffs. She wears a small bowl shaped hat & white gloves (typical of nice girls of the time). We discussed when the photo was taken; we concluded in the first summer we knew each other. It seems she wore it to the wedding of a work friend who had been pursued across country from WA by an estranged intended who caught up with his beloved in NSW. There is no recollection of who the friend was. I found out years later that the white gloves were often used to hide bitten fingernails on those occasions that I was able to catch the same suburban train home from work.

Last weekend we drove to our friends' place on the northern side of the steel city in substitution for the birthday party we missed a few weeks ago. On the way we detoured to an outlying southern suburb (once a country town) of the big smoke city where I booked into a caravan park for a week over Xmas. For the first time in years we will have a Xmas holiday! The anticipation excited me at the time but now I'm less enthusiastic. We intend to visit lots & lots of friends & rellies that may have gone elsewhere for their Xmas holidays. Anyway, we had an enjoyable weekend, staying overnight, even though she was worried about the slope of the street, the front yard, stairs in the house, no hand-holds in the toilet & shower and we had to sleep together on a fold-out divan. All things that do not bother a well person, or for that matter, a person once young enough to wear white gloves.

An average week. Some mornings she needs help after showering with drying & dressing. Sometimes her meds fail to kick in. We continue to have our main meal in the middle of the day in order to avoid upsetting the meds. Interestingly, meds & food conflicts are a hot topic in the PD forum I subscribe to.

A visit to her Caring Physician went well, although he was concerned that her use of a bidet (for that was her present that I made oblique reference to some chapters back) may encourage the UTI she has been taking anti-biotics for and he described the female plumbing issues to illustrate his point. I had not thought of this at all, instead being very happy her other problems in that area had been resolved. We will need to take care.

At our monthly PD Support Group we demonstrated the use of our new toy, the TENS machine, to relieve pain. Several people were very interested. Lunch in the club afterwards fitted in with our meal schedule.

Our weekly shopping had been delayed for about a week until this chief cook & bottle washer had almost run out of the where-withalls, so on Friday at the best of a bad time we confronted the horrible, ugly throng at the supermarket. As usual, she had to pass through the checkout to find a seat, of which there are not enough, so she had to stand most of the time I flexed my biceps unloading & re-loading a large trolley.

She was not capable of church this morning, having returned to sleep after her 6am alarm without taking her kick-start Madopar Rapid. So I stuffed & labelled envelopes with our home made Xmas cards that she completed a few days ago. Tonight she declined to go to our hall to attend a Xmas service. A couple of friends phoned for long chats today & another called.