Wonderful gift from Jeanette Jobson

When Watermarks first started I visited all the contributing artists blogs, including Jeanette Jobson at Illustrated Life.  Watermarks is a small community of artists who make art from water. They all sketch, draw and/or paint water – the sea, the coastline, beaches, rivers, streams, waterfalls, fountains – in all contexts, styles, genres and media.

Anyway, just by commenting on one of Jeanette’s post on her blog, I won a watercolour portrait done by her. How generous is that? Boy, was I excited!  With Mum’s 85th birthday coming up I decided it would be great to have Jeanette paint a portrait of Mum, so I emailed off some photos.

Guess what turned up in the mail yesterday, all the way from Newfoundland? Not one, but two beautiful watercolour portraits of Mum. (my scans are not doing the work justice, sorry about that, can’t seem to fix) So now I am even more excited, because it means I can give one to Mum and one to my sister Ailsa.

Jeanette is a generous and talented artist; I am thrilled to have some of her work way down here in New Zealand.

Watercolour portrait of Pam Barker by Jeanette Jobson

Portrait of Mum by Jeanette Jobson

Mum interlude – ouch!

Last weekend and all was quiet. All I heard was a giant crash - I knew straight away Mum had fallen. When I got into her room she was lying on her side on the floor, sort of laughing, and looking a bit guilty. It was almost her afternoon nap time, and I knew instantly what had happened, and why she looked guilty…

Sure enough, she confirmed my suspicions. 85 years old, fragile and sometimes unsteady, and she’d been balancing on one leg, trying to take her trackpants off over her slippers. Good one Mum!

Checked her over, nothing obvious, didn’t hurt to breath, so got her up and helped her into bed for her afternoon sleep. Kept checking her periodically and decided we didn’t need to go to A&E, so all good. We see them often enough as it is.

She kept saying her side was uncomfortable but I couldn’t find anything, and her breathing stayed okay. Two days later I found this massive black and purple bruise on her, umm, chest. The photo is heavily cropped so we don’t get accused of porn, if you see what I mean LOL. It’s a cracker of a bruise that’s for sure – probably 6 or 7 inches square in all.

And, for the record, she promises to always sit down to remove shoes, trackpants etc from now on. Time will tell…

Hospital not going so well

This post was put on blogger on the 2nd – but I am just finishing making the final transfer over…

We thought this would be a quick “in and out” hospital trip for Mum. Unfortunately things have not gone that well. Her kidneys are not playing the game and her blood pressure is so low she gets dizzy all the time. At 84, the risk of a nasty fall is high. That said, she fell last week and bounced no problem

To add to her woes,the hospital food has upset her gall bladder – something we have had under control with diet alone for 2 or 3 years now. Bummer!
So, although she is not as sick as she has been in the past, she’s nonetheless quite sick; and of course older than last time she got really ill. So we watch and wait…

Mum’s in hospital again

But I think this is only the second time this winter, so we’re doing well really. She had an infection, we got antibiotics, they didn’t work, so the infection kept on in a low-grade way. Mum’s diabetic, cardiac and renal patient, and it has put her heart and kidneys under considerable pressure.
On Wednesday she had a fall so I made a doctor’s appointment for Thursday. Because her heart is so fragile they try to keep her pulse rate around 60. When they took it, it was 135. No wonder she felt sick. Her blood pressure was also very low, and her kidney function had deteriorated considerably.
So, the doctor called the ambulance and my husband turned up and took her away. Nothing like having an ambulance officer for a son-in-law when you have chronic, and sometimes acute, health problems!
Last night I went up after work and she was feeling a bit better. I had a chat with her nurse who said her vitals are better but there’s a way to go yet. So she’ll be there all weekend at the very least. Our wee dog clearly thinks I’ve misplaced Grandma and is not impressed. Oh dear

I am inspired by…

our pets. It sounds a bit daft perhaps, but I am.

They’re so in touch with what they want. When they need a nap, they nap. When they need to eat, they eat. When they want to play, they play.

We can all learn from that. When I want to make art, I should just find the time, and make art.

This photo is our young cat, Goldie, asleep on the end of Grandma’s bed, with one of Faith’s squeaky toys for company.

How to really relax

Check this out – total relaxation. Goldie gets up on Mum’s knee, drapes herself into the folds of the mohair rugs and settles down. Utter bliss out. Nice!

GPP Crusade No 14 – who is your Muse?

Michelle Ward asked “who is your Muse?”. Hmm, I didn’t know, wasn’t sure I even had one… I have been thinking on this for days.

In the end the answer was easy, so easy I kept discarding it. My Muse is my husband Tony. We’ve been together for 15 years, married for 10. I was not really doing any art when we met but over the years it has come to occupy more and more of my time (okay, and the spare spaces in our house!). And he’s always been cool with it.

Sometimes he does not ‘get’ what I make, does not understand why I like it, or what I could possibly do with it. But he never fusses about all the hours, all the products, all the mess. How cool is that?

The photo is of Tony with my Mum. We live with Mum as her caregivers; he is patient and caring. Life’s good.

Hospital watch, and creating

Mum’s doing okay in hospital but will be there for a bit yet. They need to figure out why her heart rate is stuck down in the very low 40s. No wonder she feels awful. Mum has reminded them she is ‘not for resus‘ – good on her for knowing what she wants.

In the meantime, I have kept playing with wool and stuff -this time a fluffy, airy scarf.

Hospital

Well, Mum has not been to hospital since late February. We managed to get right through winter with no dramas. Amazing. We had been going to hospital very very regularly from late 06 through till Feb.

But the dry spell has been broken. Yep, she went off in the ambulance this afternoon (with my husband driving). Seems like most of the problems may stem from being dehydrated, but that also means her meds need adjusting – which is always a bit of a nightmare.

Reaffirmed with the doctor that Mum is not for resuscitation – always a hard thing to do, but she is so very clear in her wishes. So, fingers crossed…

81-84_365 : time out

I have been so tired I could not face uploading anything. I think when Mum has been very sick, then gets better, I relax and it hits me. Watching someone dying slowly over years is not an easy thing; nursing them at home is emotionally draining.

Would I change it though? Not on my life… This time with Mum is precious, and it is not an opportunity every daughter gets.