Orlando

My grandfather and I have been watching I Love Lucy in the evenings. A local channel shows back-to-back episodes at 7. We found it by chance, just flipping through the channels. My grandfather was delighted. "I haven't seen that show in a long time!"

This photo of Onyx in the bed reminds me of those 1970s colored sand
decorations that came in a glass.

The nursing home hosted a special early Thanksgiving dinner yesterday for residents and their families. My grandfather and I brought my grandmother to the main dining room for it. It was a nice event, and a chance for the residents to get out of their daily routine and for families to have time together. But it was heartbreaking too.

My grandfather was seated next to a woman whose husband is a new resident at
the home. He has Parkinson's, is in a wheelchair, and is in the first stage of dementia.
He's 74. They've been married 51 years, she told us.

My grandmother didn't eat much, which worried us, and was soft focus much of the
time. But she did have a few sharp Claudina moments. At one point, she sipped her iced tea,
put the cup down, and said, "No tiene taste." I laughed for a long time. It reminded me of a
barbecue we had here this past summer, when she bit into a pork rib that my grandfather
had eagerly prepared and announced that the meat was tough. My grandfather sputtered that
the meat was fresh and he'd only just bought it. To which she replied, still holding the rib,
"This pig is older than you."

Domingo in the backyard today. He's not one to talk much about his feelings. But every now and then he says something about sad he is to see Claudina this way. And he prays every day that she will come back home.