For those of you who are too young to remember, the Flying Wallendas were a traveling circus troupe consisting of acrobats, jugglers, clowns, aerialists and animal trainers all in one family. They became known for their expertise in the art of flying trapeze. If you are interested you can Google them – I found the write-up on Wikipedia to be quite interesting. Lorraine and my mother remember them quite well. In fact, we were discussing the circus Sunday night, right before this whole thing began.
We went to Shakopee this past weekend to deliver the 'babies' to their new parents. I am so pleased that they all got such good homes. That made it so much easier on me! And during most of the time in the motel room, Lorraine (age 88) would lie on the bed with her eyes closed and her hand pressed against her back, with a look of dreadful pain on her face. If you remember, Lorraine did not fall, but suddenly was in incredible pain back in January that required a trip to a spinal clinic in South Dakota. The only thing they did was order her to wear a truss during her waking times, and they gave her prescription pain killers for when the pain gets too bad. Which seems to be most of the time.
Anyway, on Sunday we went over to mom’s house to visit just prior to driving down to Storden again. We had just eaten a wonderful dinner consisting of mother’s homemade chicken noodle soup and the biggest apple pie I have ever seen in my life, both of which were absolutely delicious. Don and I were sitting at the dining room table, looking through a catalogue when Lorraine announced that she had decided to get up and walk into the livingroom to sit in the recliner because it was “more comfortable than the dining room chair”. We said fine, go ahead and continued pouring over the catalogue. Suddenly, we heard a loud “OH! OH! OO-OOH!” and then a loud BOOM! I whipped around in my chair, and there laid Lorraine on the livingroom floor with her feet straight up in the air. I screamed “Lorraine!” And then…you will not believe this…Lorraine grabbed herself by the backs of her knees and just flipped herself into an upright position, threw up her arms, and shouted, “I’m OK! I’m OK!”
Don and I were speechless and just sat there for a few seconds with our mouths wide open trying to comprehend what we had just seen. Well, by that time Lorraine decided that she could not make it to her feet by herself, and started to holler for us to help. So I went over there and got her underneath one arm and started to pull. At which point Don offered “You’d better grab ‘er by both sides, otherwise you’ll bust an arm, sure as heck.” Oh gee, thanks a lot, Donald. I appreciate all the help! I felt it imperative to ask "Lorraine, WHAT IN THE WORLD were you trying to do just now?" To which she replied "Oh, there was a BUG! A BUG! And I was just trying to STOMP IT and I lost my balance and FELL OVER BACKWARDS!!!" I glanced down trying tolocate this "bug" and next to my big toe was a teenie-weenie piece of sock lint, barely visible to the human eye, lying on mother's cream colored living-room carpet. I moaned "It's SOCK LINT, LORRAINE! You nearly killed yourself over a piece of SOCK LINT!!!" "OH!" she said, and she started to laugh...
And I pulled and pulled and Lorraine tried and tried. And we got absolutely nowhere. By now, we both turned to Don and pleaded for help. Twice. “I’m doin’ the best I can!!!” he explained, in exhasperation. It’s true: due to his advancing polyneuropathy, Don can barely get up out of a chair by the end of the day. Finally, he made it up and over to where we were on the livingroom floor. Don got down on his knees and had Lorraine by the waist and was heaving and shoving upwards, I had Lorraine underneath both arm pits and was heaving and pulling upwards, when Don felt that it was imperative to ask: “Lorraine. Can you explain to me, please, WHY IN THE HECK do you do these things all the time???” To which Lorraine replied “WELL, I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS TIME WE HAD A LITLE EXCITEMENT AROUND THIS PLACE.”
That did it. I started laughing and laughing. I could not take anymore! By the time we got her up onto her feet, I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom because I was afraid I would pee my pants. I sat in the bathroom laughing and laughing, tears streaming down my face. My stomach hurt so bad I could barely breathe.
I finally got myself under control long enough to calmly (somewhat) walk back to the livingroom. Mother was sitting there on the couch looking at another magazine. Don and I started playing with little Keira, the German Shepherd pup that we had kept from this litter, and I was trying to tell mom about Lorraine being so 'flexible' at her advanced age. And mom piped up “Why YES! Just because we’re older doesn’t mean we’ll snap in half!” And she jumps up off the couch, lays down on the floor, and whip – nearly does a backwards somersault. “See?” she asked, with her butt up in the air and her feet back beyond her head. “It’s not that difficult.” Don and I both stared with our mouths open. Totally speechless. I mean, there was absolutely nothing that we could say at that moment. Here is mother, seventy-something, and she is as spry as a spring chicken. And Don is barely 60, and I am just over 50, and we can hardly make it out of bed most mornings. It was so humiliating!!!
So we limped our way back home again to Storden, with our canes and our walkers. And I would like to add that Lorraine has not said ONE SINGLE WORD since we got home, about being in pain! Not even once. She sits in the livingroom on the couch and when I vacuumed today she pulled her long legs up onto the couch and held onto her knees and grinned just like a little 4-year-old. Oh, they both make us feel so old! It's downright embarrassing to be outdone by our elders! Well anyway, Good for Them! And I hope that they can stay this spry for a long, long time.
We went to Shakopee this past weekend to deliver the 'babies' to their new parents. I am so pleased that they all got such good homes. That made it so much easier on me! And during most of the time in the motel room, Lorraine (age 88) would lie on the bed with her eyes closed and her hand pressed against her back, with a look of dreadful pain on her face. If you remember, Lorraine did not fall, but suddenly was in incredible pain back in January that required a trip to a spinal clinic in South Dakota. The only thing they did was order her to wear a truss during her waking times, and they gave her prescription pain killers for when the pain gets too bad. Which seems to be most of the time.
Anyway, on Sunday we went over to mom’s house to visit just prior to driving down to Storden again. We had just eaten a wonderful dinner consisting of mother’s homemade chicken noodle soup and the biggest apple pie I have ever seen in my life, both of which were absolutely delicious. Don and I were sitting at the dining room table, looking through a catalogue when Lorraine announced that she had decided to get up and walk into the livingroom to sit in the recliner because it was “more comfortable than the dining room chair”. We said fine, go ahead and continued pouring over the catalogue. Suddenly, we heard a loud “OH! OH! OO-OOH!” and then a loud BOOM! I whipped around in my chair, and there laid Lorraine on the livingroom floor with her feet straight up in the air. I screamed “Lorraine!” And then…you will not believe this…Lorraine grabbed herself by the backs of her knees and just flipped herself into an upright position, threw up her arms, and shouted, “I’m OK! I’m OK!”
Don and I were speechless and just sat there for a few seconds with our mouths wide open trying to comprehend what we had just seen. Well, by that time Lorraine decided that she could not make it to her feet by herself, and started to holler for us to help. So I went over there and got her underneath one arm and started to pull. At which point Don offered “You’d better grab ‘er by both sides, otherwise you’ll bust an arm, sure as heck.” Oh gee, thanks a lot, Donald. I appreciate all the help! I felt it imperative to ask "Lorraine, WHAT IN THE WORLD were you trying to do just now?" To which she replied "Oh, there was a BUG! A BUG! And I was just trying to STOMP IT and I lost my balance and FELL OVER BACKWARDS!!!" I glanced down trying tolocate this "bug" and next to my big toe was a teenie-weenie piece of sock lint, barely visible to the human eye, lying on mother's cream colored living-room carpet. I moaned "It's SOCK LINT, LORRAINE! You nearly killed yourself over a piece of SOCK LINT!!!" "OH!" she said, and she started to laugh...
And I pulled and pulled and Lorraine tried and tried. And we got absolutely nowhere. By now, we both turned to Don and pleaded for help. Twice. “I’m doin’ the best I can!!!” he explained, in exhasperation. It’s true: due to his advancing polyneuropathy, Don can barely get up out of a chair by the end of the day. Finally, he made it up and over to where we were on the livingroom floor. Don got down on his knees and had Lorraine by the waist and was heaving and shoving upwards, I had Lorraine underneath both arm pits and was heaving and pulling upwards, when Don felt that it was imperative to ask: “Lorraine. Can you explain to me, please, WHY IN THE HECK do you do these things all the time???” To which Lorraine replied “WELL, I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS TIME WE HAD A LITLE EXCITEMENT AROUND THIS PLACE.”
That did it. I started laughing and laughing. I could not take anymore! By the time we got her up onto her feet, I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom because I was afraid I would pee my pants. I sat in the bathroom laughing and laughing, tears streaming down my face. My stomach hurt so bad I could barely breathe.
I finally got myself under control long enough to calmly (somewhat) walk back to the livingroom. Mother was sitting there on the couch looking at another magazine. Don and I started playing with little Keira, the German Shepherd pup that we had kept from this litter, and I was trying to tell mom about Lorraine being so 'flexible' at her advanced age. And mom piped up “Why YES! Just because we’re older doesn’t mean we’ll snap in half!” And she jumps up off the couch, lays down on the floor, and whip – nearly does a backwards somersault. “See?” she asked, with her butt up in the air and her feet back beyond her head. “It’s not that difficult.” Don and I both stared with our mouths open. Totally speechless. I mean, there was absolutely nothing that we could say at that moment. Here is mother, seventy-something, and she is as spry as a spring chicken. And Don is barely 60, and I am just over 50, and we can hardly make it out of bed most mornings. It was so humiliating!!!
So we limped our way back home again to Storden, with our canes and our walkers. And I would like to add that Lorraine has not said ONE SINGLE WORD since we got home, about being in pain! Not even once. She sits in the livingroom on the couch and when I vacuumed today she pulled her long legs up onto the couch and held onto her knees and grinned just like a little 4-year-old. Oh, they both make us feel so old! It's downright embarrassing to be outdone by our elders! Well anyway, Good for Them! And I hope that they can stay this spry for a long, long time.
Lorraine relaxing in our motel room. She must have taken one of those pain pills...
My mother in one of her more 'lucid' moments.. Seriously, though, Keira just loved my mom. And it looks as though the feeling is mutual!! Isn't this a sweet picture??
1 comment:
I wonder if Lorraine is not complaining because she did something positive to her back when she did the acrobatic stuff.
Bet you are enjoying the quiet home, now.
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