My spouse and I are on a mission, with me in boots, of course…

…the mission is to return my mother-in-law to her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after a very difficult visit.

What made the visit difficult is that the MIL is not able to adjust to change. When her routine was upset — that is, bringing her to visit us for Christmas as we have done since 2003 — she said that she liked it, but her health got worse due to lack of sleep from strange surroundings and concern that getting up in the middle of the night frequently to use the toilet would waken us.

She has reverted to requiring almost constant care, which has been too much for my spouse to handle, and that left me doing double-duty caregiving.

I am happy to report — this post was written at the end of the day on Tuesday December 29 — that we made it. The MIL is back home, safe and sound, and we only had to stop about once an hour on our five-hour journey. Frankly, I was expecting worse.

I hope to update this blog for my end-of-the-year wrap-up by the morning of 31 December, provided I have time.

PS: What boots did I wear? for the ride up, I wore black Chippewa harness boots. For errands and work around her house, I will wear Chippewa Arroyos cowboy/work boots.

Life is short: show those you love how you love them.