2002-09-08 - 9:20 a.m.
My parents drove to East Texas this morning. It turns out that my step-grandfather (I've never thought of him like that, but ...) is being hospitalized by his daughter and then he will be transferred to a nursing home here in SA, hundreds of miles from his wife, his friends, and his congregation - just so he can be close to a daughter who barely visits him once a year. My father said last night, "If they do that, he won't live long." I can't even imagine how awful it will be for him. Of course, we would visit him ... but he would be losing his entire support system.
In addition, my grandmother may have to divorce him so she can protect her money. The government would drain her finances before Medicaid would pay for a nursing home ... and she's been saving money for decades so that she will never have to live in a nursing home herself - so she could pay for home nursing if she needed it. What a mess! Politicians assert that they want to defend marriage, yet for many groups there are terrible penalties for being married! And then, of course, there are those of us who aren't allowed to marry.
Anyway, this is a crappy weekend. All of the family stuff, plus I've had an ugly migraine since yesterday. Last night I had to sleep sitting up. And lastly, Vero will be gone until Wednesday, on a business trip in Austin. Sigh. Just thinking about that depresses me.
I'm going to surf some diaries and try to cheer up.
Opal
