I slept through to 6 a.m. in the morning. Unlike my previous trip to Japan, this time my body does not suffer from a terrible jet lag. I enjoyed the quietness and peacefulness morning time for a while.
Unfortunately though, my quiet and peaceful morning did not last long.
Just past 7 a.m. in the morning, I heard a loud thud accompanied with an entire house shook. Then some seconds later, I heard my mom’s subtle voice calling my name and asking for help. I quickly climbed up the stairs and went into my parents’ bedroom on the second floor. There, I saw my mom laying down on the floor next to her bed.
I could not understand what I was seeing for a while. I need to shake myself back to the reality. I held my mom with my both arms and carried her on the bed.
She then told me what happened to her.
When she was walking to the door, her feet got numbed and could not support her body, so that she fell down on the floor. She was too weak to get up on her own.
I lost my voice for a while. It was shocking to me.
Another shocking fact was about my dad.
Regardless of the loud thud with the entire house shook, and although my dad was in his room on the same floor; on the second floor, he could not hear a thing. After ten to twenty minutes later since I carried my mom from the floor to bed, my dad finally came into the bedroom. He didn’t know about my mom’s fall down at all.
It was good that I was there to help my mom this morning. I felt scared by thinking what if the same thing happens when I am not in the house.
According to my mom, the same thing happened many times in last month. Since she has been sick and weak, and she fell down on the floor many times everywhere in the house; in the stairs, the bedroom, the bathtub, and the living room. At every time, although my dad was somewhere at home, he never noticed my mom’s accident right away. My mom had to wait for somebody such as a helper or a nurse to visit their house for some hours until they notice my mom in the ground and carry her back to bed.
There is a fact making the situation worse.
My dad recently broke the bones in his right wrist, and he has been wearing a cast for these past two weeks. Even if he notices my mom’s fall down on the floor, he would not be able to carry my mom’s body up because he is also weak as my mom.
***
After my mom calmed down from her fall down, I went downstairs and cooked breakfast for my parents.
Yesterday I went to the grocery store and bought some food ingredients for them. I cooked thin brown rice porridge and miso soup contained grated vegetables. I also cooked some other side dishes that were easy to digest.
My mom didn’t have appetite at first, but as soon as she saw the healthy looking breakfast, her appetite was back. She finished all the dishes in her tray. She appreciated me for cooking the healthy food.
***
At 10:00 a.m., my parents had an appointment about the application form for Certification of Needed Long-Term Care. This is the certificate issued by the local City. The City takes up to one month to make their decision on the applicant’s rank of the demanding needs. If my parents are certified, some of the payments such as nursing-care products or helpers will be covered by the City. In my parents’ case, the City will cover 80% of the fee.
Since my parents could not go to their office, one representative visited our house. My parents could have applied this certificate many years ago, but my dad had stubbornly refused their supporting offer for the application.
I believe every event happens for a certain reason. My mom’s fall down of this morning was supposed to happen while I was here. So, I told the application representative about the incident. Luckily enough, the representative knew the right person who can prepare any necessary nursing-care products such as handrails and supportive steps in the bath tub. She promised me to arrange the person and a handrail we can put next to my mom’s bed as a starter. She also mentioned she would do her best possibly tomorrow.
This application process was long and tiring, especially for the sick person like my mom. The representative person has to interview my parents individually with many questions. Their application process and interview finally ended after 12:00 p.m. We all were exhausted.
***
After we had a quick lunch, my mom asked me to take her the local credit union branch. My dad was at that time in the process of selling one of his real estates to my brother’s company, which used to be my dad’s company. For the process, my dad needed the official land title. My mom needed to open their safe deposit box to get the document.
We went to the credit union by taxi. My mom had a hard time to raise her feet in order to get in taxi. Everything I witnessed about my mom’s getting weak was shocking to me.
***
At the credit union office, when my mom handed the stamp to open the safe deposit box, the teller said in an apologetic tone that it was the wrong stamp. My mom looked very sick. She was reluctant to go back home to get the right stamp and come back to the credit union. I begged the director to let my mom open the safety box. The director accepted my request with one condition, only if I could bring the right stamp before they close the office. I accepted their condition.
Now, my mom was allowed to open the safety box. However, another issue happened. She could not find the right document in the safety box. My brother kept calling my mom about the document. He sent his accounting worker to the credit union. After all of us confirmed that the right document was not in the safety box, we decided to go back home.
The accountant, who is my brother’s employee, offered us a ride back home. She sent one male worker to the credit union.
I knew this male worker. He was my immediate junior staff when I was working for my dad’s company. We both were belonged to the sales division. I taught him my jobs for one year.
When he recognized me and greeted at me, I could not hold my tears back. I hid myself in the back of my mom. I could not greet him back looking into his eyes. I was secretly shedding tears in the back seat.
Again, my mom had a hard time to get into his car. I needed to carry her body by her bottom.
Once we arrived at my parents’ house, my mom went directly to lay down on the futon mattress on the first floor. I got the right stamp for the credit union’s safety box. I needed to return there to place the stamp in their document.
My previous coworker offered me another round trip to the credit union branch and my parents’ house. I could have walked there, but I gladly accepted his offer. It has been more than 20 years to see him, so that I wanted to talk with him. By then, I was calmed down. I enjoyed talking with him for a while on the way to the credit union.
My brother recently renovated his company building. It was just completed in September of 2019. I’ve never been to his new office building. My precious coworker offered to show me around the new building. I gladly accepted his offer again.
***
My brother’s new office building was a nice clean one. While the previous office building was a five-storied building, my brother made it to a three-storied building. It was covered by light blue glass windows. The entire building had lots of natural sun light.
I resigned my dad’s company at the age of 29, so it has been 21 years passed. While we had 40 employees at that time, now it is shrink down to 17 employees. The coworkers whom I knew were not there anymore, except for only three employees.
It was good to see my previous coworker again. I enjoyed our conversation. This conversation with him became one of the precious time for me in this trip. I appreciate his kind offer to give us a ride of two round trips. Also, I appreciate his showing me around my brother’s new office building.
***
When I came back to my parents’ home, my mom was still sleeping.
***
In the late afternoon, I had a surprise visitor. It was my cousin. Since my cousin didn’t know of my visit in Japan, he was surprised to see me again. My cousin is 19 years older than I. When I was still a small child, he often visited our house. He was very nice and friendly. He often babysat my brother and me by playing with us. I liked him a lot. I haven’t seen him for many years. Maybe the last time we saw each other was when I was 35 years old. So, it has been 15 years of no-seen each other.
***
My cousin came by his car. I wanted to go to the local curry restaurant. I could have walked there myself, but I wanted to talk to him in private, so I asked him to give me a ride to the restaurant. He gladly accepted my request. He also wanted to talk to me.
My mom often talked about him. In last June, when both of my parents were hospitalized in turn, my cousin visited my parents’ house often and helped my parents a lot. He escorted my mom to the hospital. He brought back trashes from my parents’ house and took them out in his local area.
My cousin and my mom grew up like siblings when they were still small. My grandpa, my aunt and uncle and their child (my cousin), and my mom had lived in a same house. My mom and my cousin are ten years apart. My mom often told me my cousin is like her little brother. My mom had taken good care of my cousin as her little brother. My cousin told me now it is his time to repay all the love that he has received from my mom. I was so happy to hear that. I appreciate my cousin for being nice to my mom.
***
Right before my departure of this trip, I checked the one week weather report for the area of my parents’ house. It said we would have rainy days all the week. However, it turned out different. We had a very hot and sunny day today. The evening news reported that today’s temperature was the record high for the first time in 104 years for the end of January. I guess I have brought a sunny day with high temperature from my current hometown; Arizona. I enjoyed the hot sunny day today.
three wisdom 