A nice, peaceful calm

This is the first weekend in quite a while when I've felt such a light burden that there's no guilt sitting here typing when I "should" be doing something else. The seniors have collected their diplomas and gone, I have only one more final exam to give to a class of 18 students, a duplicate of one I gave on Friday, and this one not until Tuesday, and there's nothing more to be started or maintained, so my responsibilities are minimal today. Fresh sheets on the bed, laundry done and folded, dinner to be leftovers from the packed refrigerator make the load even lighter. Yahoooo!

Thursday was a day I dreaded, somewhat: taking my mother on a guided tour of the Assisted Living quarters within the larger retirement community where she lives, and hoping 1) that she liked the place and we'd find a suite where she'd be comfortable, and 2) that any behaviors that the guide (head of health management services in this building) observed wouldn't bar my mother from becoming a resident there. Fortune seemed to smile on us for all of these. The floor where she'd live is very nicely appointed with lots of public areas and seating arrangements to encourage people to socialize, and they have access to a very nice patio that faces a view of the mountains. There are staff on duty 24/7 whose job is to support them and make life easier for them by helping them make appointments, get to and from places, and resolve any little problems that the residents have. Meals are included, and no heating appliances other than a microwave are allowed in the suites for everyone's safety, but there's a full kitchen in a public nook that's supervised so people can use that safely. We viewed three apartments and my mother felt more comfortable in the one with square rooms rather than the ones on the corner with diagonal walls, so we've put a courtesy hold on that one, pending a short interview with the head of health management and the completion of some paperwork. My mother tends to move, both mentally and physically, very slowly these days, so although she said she'd make the appointment with the manager, I'm sure it'll be up to me to do that and to accompany her. I can't push too hard and we can't expect her to move forward very quickly, but it looks like we've found a better situation for her than where she is now, isolated from people like herself and insecure to paranoia about being alone. These next few weeks will be busy ones, even though school is just about over, but I'm fortunate that the need to move her didn't come during the school year or in the dead of winter when the process would be even more difficult than it will be considering the fact that we'll have to get her to part with more than half of her "stuff" in order to fit into the new suite. Sis2, Bro, hubby and I have been making little plots and plans how to accomplish that, but my mother's willfulness seems to be waning, so the job may be easier than it would have been a few months ago. That's my hope.