Sunday with Mom

I was a bad girl, and stayed home Friday instead of going to work and going to see Mom. I was just tired, and with a 3 day weekend, knew there wouldn't be a lot of people at the Sprint Campus. I decided to work from home in the morning, then go see Mom in the afternoon. My goal was to complete my Service Call Trending Report, take a shower, go visit Mom, go to Costco, come home. However, my report took longer to complete than I thought it would, it was after 2:00 p.m. when I finished. By then, the idea of driving into town just wasn't very appealing. So, I checked with Brian, he planned to see her on Friday afternoon, and Craig and Teri planned to see her Saturday. So I stayed home. Saturday I cooked for Dacor, and Sunday I managed to get a shower before noon, and headed up to Timberlake to take Mom out for the afternoon. I called ahead, and told them I would be taking Mom out for the afternoon, and I would feed her. When I got to Timberlake, she was standing outside, waiting for me. I was delighted to see the Chief's bag attached to her walker. See previous blog. I was so thrilled, I sent a text to Craig, Brian and Brent. Craig and Brian had experienced part of the Chiefs bag saga, and I had called Brent on Thursday to tell him that HIS MOTHER was driving me CRAZY! Brian and Craig both responded to my text with a whoohoo, and geez, what a miracle!

So, I took mom to the plaza for the day. We leisurly drove around neighborhoods, admiring houses and yards, and then I took her to Winstead's for lunch. Mom always wants dessert, but then after she has her meal and dessert, she complains that she is too full. So I ordered from the children's menu for her. It took longer than usual, and she kept fussing about the wait. I was just relaxin, not really caring much about the wait. When they brought our food, she had a smaller than usual burger, because it was from the children's menu. A little mini steak burger. She said it was cold. I asked her if she wanted me to send it back, and she said no. She took another bite, and said I don't think we should come here for burgers again. I asked why, and she said because it was so small and thin. Thin burgers are the trademark of Winstead's, just like Steak and Shake. The Winstead's on the plaza had been there since 1940, and my mother had been coming there for many, many years. Oh well. I just explained againt hat Winstead's always had thin burgers. She did enjoy her lunch, especially her frosty. As we were leaving, she made her usual comment about being so full. I said Mom, you weren't happy because your burger wasn't big enough, and yet you are still too full! Of course, at this point I'm just a smarty pants...

We drove around a little, and I asked if she'd like to go to the Nelson Art Gallery. I think the last time I was there was before Brent moved to AZ in 2001. Wow, has it changed! They built a whole new area onto the main old building, with underground parking. We had no problem getting handicapped parking, and they have plenty of wheel chairs. Not scooters, I was going to have to push her. There are some new exhibits, so we cruised through them. Most of the new exhibits didn't appeal to mom much, African art and a photo exhibit of women from India. Not really mom's cup of tea, so to speak.

One of the challenges to the new building is the access to the old building. There's this very modern looking structure attached to the old gracious museum building. There are multiple ramps going to different levels in the new facility. There are door ways that connect the new building to the old building. But when you look at the door ways, you see stairs then going into the main building. It's not that many stairs, but I know there has to be a way. Besides, I'm already tired, and we really haven't seen anything yet!

I finally asked a gracious volunteer, who explained that if you go through the doors to the old entrance, there is an elevator immediately to the left. Armed with new information, Mom and I forged ahead. Through the doors, and wow, to the right, a ramp, to the left an elevator. My first instinct was to go to the ramp. I head to the right, start up the ramp, then see a sharp turn. Not knowing just how far I'd be pushing up, I turn around and head to the elevator. The elevator is spacious, and old, with the paneling I remembered from my youth.

Success, Mom and I are in the Nelson! Time to take in art. Now a whole new issue pops up. Beautiful paintings with ornate frames spark some memory deep with in her brain. She is reminded of a painting that her mother had many years ago, and asks me where it is. I have absolutely no idea. My maternal grandmother passed several years before my mother and father met. I have no idea what painting she is talking about, much less where it ended up. She decides Josephine, married to her uncle, Dan Kennaley must have had it. Now I wait for the inevitble, I want it back. It was my mother's, I should have it, since I'm the last child. Fortunately, this time she doesn't say anything, yet.

Cruising along, we see a beautiful European sitting room. There is a very elaborate mirror. I cringe again, waiting for the question. And there it is: What happened to my mother's mirror? I told her, Brian liked it, it's in Grandview. A few minutes later, again, where is the mirror? Grandview. Well, we need to keep track of it. I gently explained that the rest of the family isn't real into mirrors, so we were happy to let Brian have it. Of course, anything that was her mother's should be treasured by all of us. Never mind if it fits with our decor or tastes.

Going room to room within the Nelson is interesting with Mom. For one thing, she is in a wheelchair, so her perspective is different. She relies on me to tell her what things are, and when they were made. Some paintings appeal to her, others I know ahead of time she won't like. Anything with nudity or violence makes her cringe. I find myself rusing past many of the baroque paintings, and spending more time in front of still lifes and landscapes. One very amusing area was the impressionist room. I love impressionist art, and Mom absolutley doesn't understand the paintings. Even the Monet's don't impress her. For one thing, she wants to move close, not understanding that the way you see impressionist art is from a bit of a distance. We had to move quickly through Roman and Egyptian Art also, again, just not enough to keep her happy. We left about 4:30.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cruising through more neighborhoods. Mom remembered her grandmother's house address, so we drove there. She was correct, it wasn't very far from the Nelson, one block from Gillham. Amazing. Then we drove past her old house, which has been purchased by Rockhurst University (I think) for housing. It is in great shape from the outside. Mom always wishes she could go in, I point out the steps, and ask her exactly how she thinks she would do that.

We finally meandered to Timberlake, about 5:45. We told everyone about her afternoon out, she was still full, so didn't need to eat. All in all a pretty good day!