In which Primo comes home for less than 48 hours and tries to pack in two weeks' worth of relaxing in that time, which is impossible

Primo: I had a morbid thought.

Me: What?

Primo: What if my mom dies?

Me: Well, she is going to.

Primo: I mean soon.

Me: Well. That is a possibility.

Primo: I know.

Me: Would there be a funeral?

Primo: I don't know.

Me: If there were a funeral, I expect I would need to go. But if there is no funeral....

Primo: Yeah.

Primo: I was thinking I should take something to wear to a funeral  back with me.

Me: Or you could leave something that I could take. I mean, if there is a funeral, I would be going.

Primo: Yes! Good idea! What about what I am wearing now? [He is wearing dark slacks, a blue shirt, a tie, and a dark sport coat.]

Me: That would work.

Primo: Not too casual?

Me: Not for a funeral home. It's not like your dad would have anything in a church.

Primo: Nope.

Me: The only thing is-

Primo: What?

Me: The dress I wore to my dad's funeral? I never wore it again. I gave it to charity.

Primo: Oh sweetie. I'm sorry.

Me: Thanks.

Primo: I wish I could have known your dad.

Me: He would have really liked you.

Primo: I would have liked him.

[We both pause as we - or, at least, as I - think about the injustice of Sly being alive and mean to people, while my dad, who was beloved, is dead. My dad, who didn't even have his seventh-grade math students at the DOD school at Sigonella Navy Base on Sicily for an entire semester, but for whom those students had not one but two bake sales to raise the money to buy a yearbook for him and mail it to him with all their signatures. My dad, to whose funeral in a small town with no stoplights flew friends from around the US, one couple bearing a ham in their laps. Sly, alive. My dad, dead. Not fair.]

Primo: I don't think I would attach that kind of importance to my clothes.

Me: OK.

Primo: Why don't I just put everything here and if you need to come, you bring them?

Me: OK.

In which Doris has a heart attack

Yep. She has a mild heart attack. Doris cannot catch a break.

In which Doris decides not to have the surgery

Which makes me wonder if it was not essential that she have it, why was not having it presented as an option all along?

So now the plan is to get her into a nursing home so her knees can heal anyhow, even though it will take longer.

In which I wonder if the hospital where Doris is being treated was designed by the same people who designed Charles de Gaulle airport, ie, people who never gave one thought to the passengers/patients

Let me summarize. I might not have all the activities on the right days, but you will get the idea.

Thursday night: Sly falls on Doris and injures her. She goes to the ER. They check her left knee, which is the one that is swollen, find nothing, send her home.

Monday night: Primo arrives and discovers Doris is completely immobile and in great pain.

Tuesday morning: Primo sees no alternative to calling an ambulance, as he cannot get Doris into a car by himself. Hospital admits Doris because she is dehydrated. They check her knee again and check her hip

Wednesday: Ooops! Wrong knee! And what about her back? Did Sly break her back?

Thursday: Wait - something wrong with the right knee, too!

Friday: But we still need to check the left knee again. We are waiting.

Saturday: And we still need to check the left knee again. We are waiting.

Sunday: More analysis of left knee - oh! yeah! bad stuff on left knee. Have to do surgery.

Monday: No surgery without medical clearance. Fluid in her lungs, so need to take care of that. Pneumonia? Just excess fluid? Who knows? In the meantime, Doris has not eaten since midnight the night before.

Tuesday: Has to pass heart test. Delay in getting test. Finally get test but nobody at the hospital to read it any more. They finally tell Doris she might as well eat.

Wednesday (today): Heart guy wants a stress test before he signs off. Ooops. Looks like Doris has heart problems. Surgery could be risky. Doris trying to decide what to do.