ThePoliticalCat: Back At Last!

It was a long visit home, and of course, I got sick going and coming. Unhealthy air in planes. Temperature changes. Long flight. Stress.

Nevertheless, it was necessary for reasons to do with the Aging Parental Units' health. Father has come completely unmoored in his 90s. Sometimes he speaks of things that happened 70 years ago as if they were in the present. In mid-sentence, he snaps back to the present, and then again to the past, as if nothing holds him anymore. Nothing to hold his mind, and the fine intelligence that he once bore.

Mother is as sharp as ever, to my great surprise. She's had multiple strokes, the most recent one the spur for this visit. Talking about the sale of her house (which occurred half a decade ago), she suddenly asks why I dealt with "that lawyer." "What lawyer?" I ask, mind only half on the conversation, and she named the lawyer, whose name, of course, I'd completely forgotten. The little electric jolt of recognition was followed briefly by a mental picture of the firm's letterhead and a round-faced woman I dealt with. How can a brain suffer so much trauma, yet thread its way around bits of data so unfailingly? She can no longer walk and can barely speak above a whisper, results of the past series of strokes. Yet her mind is perfectly clear, and she speaks about golfers (??) and the international monetary system with equal ease.

She's still as crazy as ever, despite her obvious high level of mental function. One of the more interesting conversations about politics turned suddenly into a tirade about a former neighbour and "her genies, who make holes in the wall and bit my foot off." No use pointing out that her foot was still there, quite visible and palpable.

In any event, it's all over and done with. And we had some very good food for our pains, which is all that really matters, innit? Shelter, clothing, and food are the basics, and if any (or all) of them be good, one can be quite happy.

And then there are kittens: