The Eyes, Again...

My mother-in-law telephoned an old neighbour of her's today, just to chat, and she got off the telephone more depressed than I have seen her for a while.  The neighbour is going blind; her eyes are bleeding for some reason and need to be cauterized; actually, I don't know if they are going to be cauterized but she is going to have emergency laser treatment next week.  Unlike my mother-in-law with her herpes of the eye that was curable, the neighbour has diabetes and has failed to maintain a healthy diet.  This sugar habit really seems to affect seniors!  Anyhow, it got the matriarch thinking of how she is going to maintain her independence if she is blind.  Not to point out the obvious, but she really isn't independent now...I didn't say that to her; I asked her if she had plans to go dancing?  What exactly did she want to do that being blind would somehow prevent her from doing?  She had to think for a minute.  Sometimes, you really have to wonder about people.  I have been cutting up the matriarch's meat at dinnertime for awhile; I cannot say it started because of her sight but it is not like something new will be happening.  The constant darkness may be new and I know frightening, but she is here and we won't suddenly stop helping her. 

The matriarch went on to tell me her neighbour will never see her son again, 'see' in the visual sense; the son lives in the prairies and the neighbour will be blind before he ever returns to Ontario.  I wanted to say, but didn't, the son has lived in the prairies for forty years and has never been back to visit.  I wanted to say, but didn't, that my mother-in-law is so very lucky to be wanted by family.  She knows a lot of people who aren't so lucky.

It never rains but it pours: I also think the matriarch is going deaf; it figures, the body is failing more quickly than the spirit.  At lunch, today, food on the table lunchtime, one of my children revealed plans to buy the film 'Snatch' for my husband.  The matriarch heard the word "lunch" and said, "Yes, we could go to lunch."
And the child responded, "Not lunch, 'Snatch.'"
Then Grandma said, "I don't want a snack but we could go to Swiss Chalet for lunch."
To which I responded, "No, we're eating lunch now."
And, the matriarch got annoyed because no one was understanding her.  Then, I told her my parents were taking her to Swiss Chalet tomorrow and her humour cleared till she made the phone call.  I don't imagine life will be that different when the matriarch is blind; the staff at Swiss Chalet are very good and she'll be fine as long as she can do lunch.  (Though to be honest, I am back eating the bags of chipits and have a stash of turtles for nights like this one...)