The Thing About Bill
Oh. Right. I have a DLU to post! I was so focused on getting work done this morning, I never even selected the photos I wanted to use, until my lunch hour was supposed to be over.
What can I update you on? Nothing much. I didn't even have a phone call with any doctors yesterday. I had a brief call with Christopher, though. He thought Bill was slowly getting closer to making the right decision regarding Mom, but he wanted to wait a couple more days. He can't just keep waiting, though.
And then I got messages on Facebook Messenger from Shelley, telling me she had just gotten off the phone with Bill. Her assessment of Bill was a lot more dire: She thought Bill might even be suicidal. She said he sounded like he might be drunk. While we were messaging, she contacted the PSR agency she used to work for, and they told her they would send someone out to check on Bill. I'm assuming that has happened but I have received no further updates.
In any case, we do have Bill to worry about, maybe a bit more urgently than I realized, even in his case. I have had no direct conversations with Bill myself, and I m not certain I should. I would be too tempted to tell him it's time to let Mom go. He's already getting that from Christopher, and from Shelley, and apparently even from Mom's old school friend Karen, who also messaged me after work yesterday to tell me she had spoken to him on the phone in the morning. They all ask him basically the same question: is this what Mom would want? Bill apparently told Karen he "didn't know what to believe" anymore, which doesn't sound like a good sign.
I exchanged a few of those messages with Karen while I was at the PCC office. Alexia was unavailable for walking, as she has to work more on other days while taking tomorrow off to take her own mom, a woman in her eighties, for a heart procedure she may very well not survive. I'll be surprised if she doesn't, but it's still a concern. Apparently she's on her seventh pacemaker or something, and they have to stop her heart briefly to do whatever they're doing. In any case, there is a fair chance both Alexia and I will have the loss of our mothers to talk about this week.
So, I rode my bike. That saved me a lot of time, actually—like an hour. I made burgers for dinner and I watched a truly excellent documentary on Netflix about trans representation in media called Disclosure. I eagerly recommend it.
When Shobhit got home, I made chai, and we watched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and then an episode of Designing Women.
Beyond all that, I just finished a FaceTime lunch with Karen, which is the biggest reason this post is as late as it is, as lunches with her go for an hour rather than my standard half-hour lunch break.
Most of the call this time revolved around Karen just empathizing with what I'm going through with Mom right now. We also talked a lot about her family, her siblings, her parents who are still alive but also in their eighties, and where they live. She actually didn't eat during the call this time. She appeared to be folding laundry at her dining room table.
And now? Well, I have lot of work to do. But I can hear Shanti barging out in the hallway so I guess I have to clean that up first.
[posted 1:18 pm]