Surprise, surprise

The liquid diet that mom is now on consists of my homemade juice (beet, carrot, kale and apples) and a meal replacement powder, protein powder, cream, vanilla yoghurt and milk all mixed together.  It's all vanilla flavoured and when you have that 3 times a day, well it gets boring.  So I surprised mom and made it with chocolate milk.  She loved it and I literally couldn't get the straw out of her mouth.  There are a few residents on mom's wing like Arlene, who only eats mashed potatoes and meat mince and Marie who eats only soup.  The workers asked I could make a jug so they could try it with Marie and Arlene.  Well, they loved it too.  Now I am the official super drink maker.  As there are so many flavoured milks out there now, like strawberry, banana, orange and even a mocha, I can get a little creative with it.
Mom went on the nod again at lunch so I wheeled back to her ward.  Skate America was on the television.  I asked mom if she wanted to watch figure skating or take a nap.  I was expecting to hear take a nap but instead mom said "Figure skating".  Mom always loved watching three things, figure skating, curling and baseball or and Canadian football but only if the riders were playing.  She's not a big fan of football but she was raised in Saskatchewan, so she's riders fan, our whole family are riders fans.
Mom and I sat and watched skating.  I haven't watched it for some time and I was amazed by some of the lifts they are now doing.  Then out of the blue mom says "Lena Shellian".  She surprised me with that.  Lena was a much better seamstress than my mom and I'm sure everyone in 'old' Canmore had something made or altered by her at some point.  Mom hated working with certain types of material so my skating outfits were all made by Lena.  Mom and her were good friends too.  We were up at her place often for fittings but more so mom and her could have coffee and some of Lena's cookies or squares and of course to gossip.  If Barry wasn't around, I would always wander off to Mr. Shellian's garage and watch him make his one of his bird houses and listen to him talk about his youth.
Eventually she went on the nod again so I tilted her chair back and snuck away to go do some laundry.
When I returned, who do I run into coming out the down but Lloyd and Dawna Evans.  Another surprise.  Dawna and I had run into each other in June out front of Shopper's Drugmart in Kamloops.  We talked back then about how worried we were about mom, comparing notes and trying to figure out what was causing the trouble.  Mom was still walking and talking and eating then.  Now she can't do any of that.
Lloyd and/or Dawna try to visit as often as they can.  Lloyd noted how much ability mom has lost since the last time her saw her in September.  I had to tell them that she's lost the ability to chew and swallow solid food and that she was now on a liquid diet.  I also had to tell them that she's now a C1 resident and explain to them what that means.  They were a little taken back by that revelation.  Dawna said that they will be out more often, given the circumstances and that next time she would bring pictures of all the trips her and my mom and Dylan and Cassie took together over the years.  Dylan and Cassie were the best of friends when they were young.  Dawna and Lloyd have been good friends to the family too.  They are wonderful people and they never judged mom or thought any different of her because of her mental illness's.
Lloyd was also a great dentist.  Before he started practice in Canmore we had to go to Dr. Knechtal in Banff and he was a donkey dentist.  Not Lloyd, he was always comforting and gentle and I've never found another dentist like him.  He's worked on three generations of Obrigewitsch teeth.  My mom's, mine and Dylan's.  Yes, that's my mom's maiden name, what a moniker that one is.
Surprises come in many packages from chocolate milk to a memory to an unexpected visit with old friends.  I think mom was a little happier today, at least I hope she was.