Saturday, May 16, 2015

Shabbat, 16 May 2015

I slept well last night and got up fairly early, going out for a nice, full walk this morning.

Friends from our synagogue in Nahariya, Eyal and Esther, who live in Shlomi, next to the Lebanon border not far from the Mediterranean Sea, decided to DRIVE down to visit me here in Eilat today! I could hardly believe it when Esther told me they'd like to come, and it was SO wonderful to see them.

We sat and chatted on the mirpeset (balcony) for a while, and then they took me to lunch at Landwer Café at Ice Park. Afterwards, Esther did some clothes shopping both there at Ice Park and a little later at Mall HaYam. They then dropped me off at my place and started their drive back home. Luckily, Eyal LOVES to drive even more than I do, and he has an Alfa Romeo!

It was really great to see them, and it meant a lot to me. David, too, would be SO pleased at their kindness.

I have now written several stories about David's life, and I'm going to start posting them here, one a day, not in any particular order. So, here's the first one:

Stories about David: A Mother’s Day Surprise

It was Mother’s Day, I don’t remember which year.

My mom was living in The Villa (that might not be its actual name, but it’s how we all referred to it), a retirement apartment building in Loma Linda. She had her own 1-bedroom apartment and a kitchenette, but there was a general dining room where everyone could eat if they wanted. Residents could also make arrangements for visitors to join them for a meal there.

David and my mom had ALWAYS been very close, right from when he first met her. On Friday, he often would come to fix her hair so that she would look beautiful for Shabbat (and she did!). The other ladies at The Villa (there were only a few men, of course) were very jealous of my mom because she had not one but TWO boys who came regularly to visit her.

So, on that particular Mother's Day, we joined Mom for lunch, which was not all that unusual. The interesting part of the story comes later in the day, though. For no known reason, David decided that we should go back and visit mom again. I don’t actually remember how I felt about it, but we did go back.

When we came into the lobby, there was Mom, a woman who had done some work for her on occasion, and one or two staff members of The Villa, signing something. It turned out that the woman, Linda, had gotten Mom to sign for HER to have Mom’s medical power-of-attorney. Mom was sufficiently confused that she didn’t realize the danger, but The Villa employees were more than a little embarrassed at having agreed to be witnesses. We might never have known about this until it was MUCH too late if we hadn’t happened to have come in just then.

As it was, we were able to get Mom to sign papers later giving US medical power-of-attorney, using the services of a friend who was a realtor and a notary public. But we wouldn’t have even known it was necessary if David hadn’t suggested that extra visit. I have no doubt that, later, when Mom needed more care, LINDA was have taken Mom, she would NOT have cared for her very well, and she would have charged a fortune for it, too. Instead, we were able to get mom excellent care in a board-and-care home when she needed it, and she remained there until she died.

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