Downtown

We started yesterday out with a walk around our hotel in the older downtown part of Helena. Had some breakfast at an internet cafe, drove around to do some shopping for some stuff Joy needed, had some locally famous chili for lunch at Parrot's (an authentic soda fountain shop), went to Bill's for a steak dinner and Shirley's in the evening to meet my nephews who had just rolled into town. Shirley's sons are in their late 30's - early 40's, one is actually older than me and calls me uncle Doug. Joy spent time with her Mom, which I had hoped she'd get to do more of. We took her to her place after the dinner. She believes she will one day return to her home in Palm Springs and is in a bit of denial over the situation. She can't be alone anymore. It's tough for Joy and her sibs, I know. I have such a different example in my Mom's mother, Marcella, who basically picked the times to act along the way with her different transitions later in her life. She could see it was time for the help assisted living could provide and basically said, "Pack me up. It's time to go." To be fair, their personalities and living arrangements were different. Marcella lived closed to my mother and remained in close proximity and she was an open communicator. Francis had lived for decades alone away from her kids and (it appears to me) was much more private with her personal life, making this transition particularly difficult.