Thursday, January 17, 2008

A sweet day with Emily

What a great day I had today. My friend Laurie's youngest daughter is getting married in May. Her sister, Emily, and I are giving a shower for her so we went off today to buy shower things. Of course, we left home at 10:30 A.M. and never got to the shower shopping until 3 P.M.

In the meantime.....we stopped at the nursing home to see our friend Florence. I don't know that I've written a lot about Florence here. She is an old and dear friend of mine from way back. We met about 38 years ago when we both worked for the same company. Never married, she asked Jim and I to be her power of attorney and health care proxy - and that we are, gladly. The past five years haven't been kind to our precious friend - she is suffering from Alzheimer's. Although she can't always call me by name, I am always sure she knows I'm someone who loves her. Emily and I had a great time with Florence and her friend, Marion.


Emily and Florence

After I took this picture, I showed it to Marion. She said, "Look, I'm in there".

Emily is a teacher, albeit without a permanent position ,yet a teacher nonetheless. She is as wonderful with the elderly as she is with elementary children. She just has a heart for people who need her. The best laugh of the day was when Marion showed us her pretty bangly bracelet....which I had given Florence for Christmas. Hey, everyone was happy, so what's the difference?

After a pleasant half hour or so with these ladies, we decided to just take a quick run to Michael's. Emily had to return an item for her mom and I am always game for Michael's. To our credit, though we lusted, we didn't buy anything. I think that might be a first for me.

Since we were right across the street from the mall, why not just take a walk around? The theme for the shower is "Simply Elegant". It's a surprise for Meghan that we are asking everyone to dress in black and white. Of course, neither Emily nor I have anything (or should I say "had" anything) quite right for the party ...but we do now. What fun! And everything was on sale. Hmmm! How do you suppose those other three shirts found their way into my bag? As much as Jim loves and indulges me, he will never understand my passion for clothes.

What's a trip to the mall at 12:30 P.M. without lunch? Once again to our credit, although we ate at Friendly's, we didn't have ice cream. And the coffee at Starbuck's later was only 90 calories. I'm telling you, after three days of the Special K diet, I really needed a good solid lunch.

After returning Emily's shoes to Target, we finally made our way to the party store where we found everything we wanted for the tables. One more stop at Dollar Tree (my all time favorite) and we were on our way home. I walked in the door about 5:30, just in time for the spaghetti dinner Jim had prepared.

Now, I ask you, is that the life or what? As I reflect on the day, I can't help but think how God has blessed me with friends of all ages and from all walks of life.

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.

-David Viscott

3 comments:

Tracy said...

Sounds like a really fun day of retail therapy. I'm heading that way today, myself. I plan to hit Eastview and Michaels and doubt I'll leave empty handed.

camport said...

"The best laugh of the day was when Marion showed us her pretty bangly bracelet....which I had given Florence for Christmas."

That is hilarious! My aunt's mother had alzheimers and she said whenever they would visit her, they would notice other people walking around in her clothes. Apparently, there was one hospital resident that would go in and take other people's things, but the other resident's wouldn't remember if they were their things or not. We always laugh about that. Not that alzheimers is a laughable disease, but it's nice to have a break in the sadness of it all, to laugh at the circumstances the reality of it offer.

So glad you had a good day out, and like you, I am so thankful for my friends...of all ages. ;)

Nancy said...

Sounds like you had a great day! A day like that is "good for the soul" as my grandma used to say. You are such a caring person, Pam! I, too, had to laugh about the bracelet....maybe they had a gift exchange party!