Tuesday, July 2, 2024
With Mother’s Day being right around the corner, many people are getting ready to celebrate the special day with their mothers.
The national holiday was established to honor mothers around the world for all that they do for their children, but we sometimes forget to focus on what the children do for their mothers.
A local of Gatesville, David Scott, has been at his mother’s side while she has been residing in a nursing home for some time now. Dolores, Scott’s mother, has been a resident at Hillside Medical Lodge for the past six years, due to an incident where she fell.
Dolores was first placed in the physical therapy program, which she graduated from shortly after. Just a few days after bringing her home, Scott expressed that it was short-lived due to the early onset of dementia.
“I have missed very few days over the years,” he said. “The one thing that prevented us from seeing her was COVID.”
Scott explained that during COVID, along with his son, Alex, the two would have to make an appointment to visit with her through a glass window. He mentioned that his mother could not quite grasp why they couldn’t come in to see her.
“She would always put her hand up on the glass, and I would put my hand up with hers, and it was almost like we were touching,” he said. “At one point when we did that, I started crying, because it is hard to have a loved one that you cannot physically be with.”
Scott said that as soon as the nursing home began letting visitors back in the building, he started going to see his mother every single day. He visits his mother seven days a week to make sure she is doing well.
“When we were babies our mothers took care of us, so why should it be any different now,” he said. “I mean, I’m not doing a lot of the caring for her, but I am there every day to see that she eats, has clean clothes, and is taken care of.”
He mentioned that his son, Alex, has played a major part in going to visit with his grandmother. Throughout Alex’s high school career, he would visit the nursing home every evening with his father.
“She has such a special bond with Alex, my son, and he does with her, too,” he said. “He worries about her quite a bit, so on the few occasions when I can’t go see her, he will drive back from college to be with her.”
Most days when Scott visits his mother he will take her for a stroll around the building of the nursing home, make sure she is fed, make her bed, and will settle her down for the evening. He said that she has earphones that are connected to the television, so she can watch movies throughout the day while he is gone.
“The minute I walk in the room she lights up and says that she has been waiting on me all day, or that she has been looking for me all over the building,” he said. He said that sometimes she will wait at the entrance for him to arrive in the evenings.
“She is fairly content at the nursing home, but in the beginning, it was rough to leave her up there,” he said. “Just like growing up, how she was so overprotective of me, I am now overprotective of her, so the roles have changed.”
Scott expressed that you learn by example. “Mom would take me to a nursing home when I was little, and we would visit with the elderly people and take them cookies.” He explained that the nursing home has never been a taboo place for him and that he enjoys talking with residents, but he learned that from watching his mom take care of those people.
“I think I have instilled a little bit of that in my son, Alex, because when he goes to the nursing home, he is not afraid to talk with people and help out,” he said. “I told him that I do not know of any other 19-year-old that would help out with all of this, and Alex told me that he learned from the best, his father.”
This Mother’s Day the two plan to do something extra special for her since it will be her 95th birthday on May 10, which is just a few days before the holiday.
“It has always been kind of a double whammy for me, because I would have to get a birthday gift and then a day or two later, I had to get a Mother’s Day gift,” he said.
Scott expressed that in this stage of dementia, his mother doesn’t really know that it is Mother’s Day, although in the beginning of her stay she did.
When Scott was growing up, he said that normally he would take his mother out to eat and get her a corsage to wear for Mother’s Day, but since she is at Hillside, he and Alex will take her dinner and flowers for Mother’s Day and her birthday to celebrate.
“She was always my rock growing up; she made so many sacrifices and gave me nearly every advantage that I have ever had in my life,” he said. “She taught me so much, and I owe her so much for giving me a good childhood, because she was there for me from the beginning.”
“The strength and love of a mother is just unbelievable,” he said. “She always went the extra mile for me, and I just want to protect her and be there for her like she was for me.”
