Notes from The Shrine : A Little More Loretta (1.3.25)

First time seeing Dad this year. He’s been here 11 months, somehow. Loretta and her daughter talking on B hall. Loretta used to live in Seattle, in a house she never wanted to leave. Her daughter ordered pizza for the staff.

My dad is still in bed. He was asleep when I arrived but he’s been mostly awake ever since. Often with his eyes closed. He was asking me a few questions.

Loretta remains one of if not the most vocal resident here. She tells her daughter how much she loves her, more than she will ever know.

“2025?” she asks. “And where are we living? I like it here.”

Loretta would come here and walk every morning. Before she lived here. My dad would come here to walk sometimes, too. LaDosha thanks Loretta’s daughter for the pizza. I gotta get on that, ordering food for the CNAs, before it’s too late, if there is such a thing.

I had a banana that Dad was surprisingly interested in. Where did I get it? Was it my lunch? He said he was very happy I had it. That was a strange thing for him to say. He is lying there, no lights on in here but for sun through the blinds. He has his left index finger to his lips, rubbing it along them.

Loretta is a great-grandma again. End of the line for this family. No little babies for any of us.

It’s 11:42. I guess they’ll get him up for lunch. Who knows. I ask him if he had been up already. He doesn’t know. What about yesterday? He doesn’t know.