Terminal Shopper

At 88 years of age and in a state hospice calls terminal, mamma requested to be driven to the “Dollar General” store so she could pick up a few things.  First, there had to be a mental note of everything necessary for her well- being on the “Road Trip” The portable nebulizer to ensure that she received her breathing treatment on time was plugged into the vehicle charger. The two tubes of the breathing medication for the nebulizer had to be kept out of light until she was ready for the treatment. A cylinder of oxygen was connected to the oxygen tubing and placed on the floorboard where she sat, along with another full cylinder in the back floorboard. She had agreed that it seemed more practical to be pushed around the store in her wheelchair rather than using her rolling walker. Getting the wheelchair into the 4Runner the evening prior to the trip proved to be more than I should have attempted alone.  Pulled muscles across my shoulders and another in my middle back convinced me that my husband should come “Along for the ride.”  The Hospice nurse had helped me accept that mamma might think she was more capable of doing things that she actually lacked strength to complete.  However, mamma made up her mind and there was to be no diverting her attention from her plan.

There has never been such a trip. Mamma wanted to examine every item on all shelves. My husband pushed the cart while I pushed the wheelchair. He had fixed a nice holder onto the wheelchair in which to secure the oxygen bottle. After having selected items from every department of the store, and having picked out all five items on her list, we headed for the checkout line about two hours after entering the store.  While I stared at the clerk when she said $279, mamma, a type 2 diabetic, was happily eating a candy bar off the shelf next to where we had parked her wheelchair. My dear husband loaded everything into the 4 runner and off we went to the restaurant where mamma decided she had plenty strength to go inside for her meal rather than getting take-out.  With oxygen bottle in hand, mamma walked inside to a table with me holding her arm because we did not have her cane or walker and we felt it was almost too much to ask my husband to get that wheelchair out and into the vehicle again.

Overall, it was a great day and she did not get too exhausted. My husband and I unloaded all the purchases and put them into cabinets, freezer and refrigerator.  Later, after I awoke from a four hour nap, I phoned to be sure mamma had not been excessively fatigued. She said she had taken a brief nap and after she got up, she had made me a list for when I might go to town again.

V9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly for my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. V 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”