Posted 1 Hour Ago at 12:45 PM by butterpaw
Updated 45 Minutes Ago at 01:53 PM by butterpaw

Monday morning. 8:30am. Just finished breakfast at my mother's house, and was about ready to leave for work (in another town). My sister came in, just off from three 12-hour night-shifts at the hospital, to give Mom her meds. The neighbor's dog began barking frantically, and we went out to see...

Ow! my sister's car, which she had parked at the top of the hill above our mom's house, had rolled down toward the house, but fortunately was stopped by a tree. Well, fortunately for the house - it was pretty hard on the tree and the car! My sis is still sure she pulled the handbrake and set it in reverse.. so .. must have popped out or something.

Oh well, phone calls to insurance etc. ensued, and I decided to take off time to help her get things sorted. The car was towed and left at body shop for estimate and repairs, and then we went to shop for the week's food, and to pick up Mom's meds. This seemed to take an interminable time, but was about successfully concluded, when my sis had to run back to get something she'd forgotten to pick up.. and slipped and fell with a couple of jars of dipping sauce.. so on the floor with twisted ankle, and broken glass and sticky dipping sauce everywhere... owwww. My sister is a careful, deliberate sort of person who cares for people in very precarious life situations.. this was very unusual for her, a measure of her accumulated exhaustion. Anyway, she managed to get extricated from that and could walk, though she had bruised her ankle and her chest and was feeling pretty ragged by the time I got her home... oh, and she smelled interesting too!

However, in the meantime I had received several calls from a frantic daughter stranded at a bus station in Richmond Virginia.. needing me to go to the bank and get $200 from her account and send it to her by Western Union (the bank is as far from my place as my sister's but in the opposite direction! My phone charge had run down, so I did not get all this info right away.. meanwhile, I got sis home, we got food distributed to both houses, and I took off to off to unload purchases at my house. I plugged in the phone, and figured out what I needed to do.. made some phone calls.. (by now about 3pm). I headed for the bank (and the Food Lion where there is a Western Union). Lest you should think this day was all bad... let me say that the lady at the bank was helpful and kind and very understanding of my daughter's situation. My eldest daughter is 43 years old, with bipolar disorder that for many years had not been well controlled, and .. her life's been rather chaotic. Anyway this lady even told me that my daughter had been managing much better recently. So, on to the Food Lion where I cooled my heels for a bit while waiting in line for someone buying lottery tickets, when a woman came out from the back and said she could help me.. well since I did not understand very well, what, exactly I needed to do as asked for her to guide me through it.. and .. she did! She came right out from behind the counter and stood next to me showing me each thing to do with the form. It went very smoothly and she mentioned that she too understood how complicated some people's lives could be.. said she had raised several foster children, and one of them (with a similar condition to my daughter's) was still living with her. She quickly sent the information (i.e. the money), and I was able to call the bus station and let them know the control number (which would facilitate the transfer), and I was then able to head for work.

It was nearly 4pm when I reached work - and I knew I did not have the strength to walk from where I usually park, as I had been on my feet for a very long time.. so I chanced it.. but the handicapped parking spot was taken, so I headed to the back of the library and the loading dock, and went in the back way to ask if I could park there for a while.. and the Mail Room guy said sure - and youcan just leave the car there 'til you leave, and bring back the pass in the morning.

So I headed on in to start working .. and did 4 hours.. which is pretty good for a day like that. Got home, ate, and then slept like a log. ^_^

Three really understanding people in places where they could make things easier or hellish.. and all were wonderful!! (Five, really because two people on the phone at the bus station were very helpful too) Wow!

My daughter got safely home, and I got a phone call from her last night telling me so, and that she loves me (sweet words to a mother's ear) ^_^