The Day Has Finally Come

Mom and Dad, home at last.

It's been a long long day, but as of about 3:00 PM, Mom is officially home.

I got up to the Homestead around 9:30 this morning, unsure of how the day would unfold. Ron, Janet, Kathleen and Beverly stopped by yesterday and did an amazing job of cleaning, organizing and moving things around inside the house, and out of all the activity came the idea to replace the aged king-size bed with something newer and more rational like a queen-size Posturepedic. So a few afternoon phone calls later and the deal was made...but delivery was not going to happen until this morning.

This made for some drama since Mom was set to come home at 11 AM and as of a phone call from Mattress World (where it really ISN'T too late to sleep like a baby) last night at around 9:05 PM, the delivery folk would be at the house in the morning between--you guessed it--10:30 and 12:30.

So I planned to spend the morning finishing the railing, cleaning the path, putting in mini-ramps around thresholds and basically busying myself until the mattress had been delivered and we could go get Mom. Well, time passed, around 11:30 we got a call saying that the delivery would happen close to 1 PM.

This made for a tighter and tougher pick up window, and there was no time to run down and get Mom in between, but long story short, it all worked out in the end (and with some delicious cheeseburgers for lunch to boot!). The mattress guys came and dropped off the fancy new bed, but best of all, they took away the old one, making for a clean swap.

With the house ready we scampered to Maryville, got Mom's stuff together, signed some paperwork and headed for door. Mom seemed so surprised that so many people came up to hug her and say goodbye, but I reminded her that she's a pretty neat lady, the kind of person you miss.


It was kinda rough getting Mom from the car to the ramp (since it's still rocky and we need to level that area a lot), but once on the ramp and the chair, it was smooth sailing. She was amazed at all the changes around the house and kept thanking us for getting her home (as if we were just going to leave her there...come on, Mom! :) ), and after making the bed and vacuuming and picking up a little, I bid them adieu for the afternoon to let them settle in.

If you get a chance, call or stop by and say hi.

And, apropos of nothing, some final pictures of the end of the ramp and the new parking place for the Chevy Celebrity: