“Now is the tricky part. I have to get these old knees to bend and get in the door.”
“I got you. Take it easy, bend slowly and bob your head down.”
She followed my instructions and descended gingerly into my car. She made it in and I watched as she got her first leg in the door.
I moved around to the driver’s door. I cranked the engine as she pulled in her other leg.
“I’m in like Flynn. Done, baby girl.” Mama smiled.
“Nice.” I kicked the air conditioner up. The air felt hot and sticky, so I could feel what kind of day it was going to be already. “The first stop is Sunnyside Homes.”
With her hand on her thigh she turned her whole body, and her expression opened. “Sunnyside? What kind of name is that? It already sounds like a retirement home.”
“Kind of is though, Mama.”
“How about Mississippi Manor? I prefer that better. A castle with butlers and maids, that works well. Not Sunnyside. That feels so ewww, I don’t know.” She wrinkled her cute little nose as she curled her fingers up.
“Mississippi Manor? Mama, you’ve been reading too many of those murder mysteries.”
“Maybe I have. Maybe I have, dear.” She patted my hand.
I weaved through the slow Holbeck traffic and out to the independent nursing home. It was set back on the outliers of Holbeck and two streets over was the Glenam township.
As we pulled in the parking lot, I didn’t think much of it. On the outside it looked great, and it even had a pool in the back, but I was more concerned with the staff and how they were going to treat my Mama. I’d heard some horror stories about nurses pumping older patients full of sedatives, so they didn’t have to do their jobs. That wasn’t about to happen to my Mama.
I wanted her to have top notch care, well ? as far as my dollars could stretch.