"Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"

Another group of people I couldn't have made it without were the aides and nurses from Cleburne County Home Health who came to check on my mother and to help her get baths. I looked forward to their vists, and I think my mother usually did as well. Sometimes it seemed she though she was being visited by an old friend. It didn't take her long to begin refusing to let me help her get a bath, but she rarely refused one of the "bath ladies" as we called the aides.

The Home Health aides came three times a week to give my mother a bath, and to check her temperature and pulse. They also trimmed her fingernails and toenails, and they would dry and brush her hair. She loved it when they would tell her how pretty her hair was and how they wished they had thick hair like hers.

The Home Health nurses came once a month to check my mother's blood pressure, and to listen to her heart and lungs, and to talk over how she was getting along and answer any questions I had. Once every three months, there was an additonal visit by a nurse who took blood for testing. I always looked forward to the results of that blood test, because the nurse would go over it all with me, and I could tell whether I was feeding my mother right in order to lower her cholesterol and to keep everything else in balance.

It was great to have the aides and the nurses to talk to, to discuss whatever was going on and what I could try to make my mother feel better. To them I also owe a big "thank you" for making my "Year to Remember" possible.

Copyright © 1996, 1997 Brenda Parris Sibley

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