My Husband Does Lunch

My mother-in-law and her son went for lunch today.  They went shopping.  They sought Christmas decorations because my mother-in-law is going to add to the stock she already has.  They went to the hardware store because she was looking for something (I don't know what).  And, they came home where my husband, patient man that he is, had to pull out all her Christmas decorations and try to find a non-existent second box of  jolly stuff.  I think I might have thrown it out.  In the midst of this, my husband came upon a toaster oven.  "Did you know my mother had a toaster oven up there?"

Of course, I did not know.  That would be a fire hazard.  My husband moved her in, you would think he might have noticed.  You would think I would have noticed after a year of cleaning her room; but, then, it is her room and I don't pry into closed cupboards or drawers.  It is her room, large enough to have a bedroom suite, a couple of lazy boy chairs (both bought new when the matriarch moved in), a television set and her own en suite.  It is her room and as much as I do for her, I can't forget she is another person with her own privacy and her own wants and likes.  I feel like an invader when I have to clean.  Of course, I did not know she had a toaster oven but the whole secret cheese pounds suddenly make sense.  My husband has had to tell his mother that she can't use the toaster oven in the bedroom, that she is not to keep bread and cheese hidden away and, if she wants anything, she is to let me know and I will get it for her.  I wanted to say, "Thank you very much."  He just added more to my work load, but, honestly, where does such a tiny woman put away all this food?  The matriarch told my husband she does not use the toaster oven but keeps it just in case...Just in case of what? 

I keep thinking about that 111 year old veteran.  It is not beyond the realm of possibility of my mother-in-law making, yet another, move.  Can you imagine: she could outlive us all.  And, I am not being facetious.  There is nothing we could do if she wanted to move...I hate this powerless feeling.