Tuesday update on Joe......

I have had lots of e-mails asking about Joe, so this blog is serving the purpose of my only typing it once, then sending it out to everyone. Any day you want to catch up on the blogs on Joe, just go to: http://ruthiep-thoughts.blogspot.com
I began this blog on September 16, 2006, the day Joe first moved into a group home, so I could let friends know what was going on with him, and also release my emotions and feelings-have always journaled, so it was a natural for me.

My believing something better would happen for Joe, and my intuition, proved right on target today. The owners of Compass Rose Care Home are from Yugoslavia (Donna and Peter), and Donna was a medical social worker in Yugoslavia and has many years of caring for people, and it is what she loves to do. They are very friendly, loving people and I spent a wonderful hour with them this morning. Their home is lovely, Joe's room is beautiful and even has brand new wood floors in that room. Very cheerful and inviting. I met the other four residents and only one is bed-ridden. The owners live on the premises and there is an additional caregiver.
Very beautiful back yard and patio, with tons of wonderful plants and flowers.
A bed with rails will be ordered from hospice and also a wheelchair, as she wants to get Joe into the wheelchair. So that is all good. He will probably move in this Thursday, or whenever hospice can set up the ambulance to take him there.
You can write me an email if you want his address. He will only be 3-4 blocks from the home he was in for 10 months.

After I left the place that is to be Joe's new home, I went to the hospice to see him and feed him his lunch. They said he had eaten hardly any breakfast today, but he ate a very good lunch for me. Then he got mad at me and said I fed him too much! This is what he always does, and I just tell him I had to over-feed him because he is getting so skinny! He ate half of his mashed potatoes, and half of the shredded chicken covered with gravy, and most of the soft cooked green beans. Then he ate almost the entire cup of ice cream, plus drank some cranberry juice- so this was all good. Then he immediately falls asleep again!

I received a nice e-mail today from Ray, a childhood/high school friend in Oklahoma, who now lives in Texas. As I was replying to him, the answer came to me why Joe is fighting so hard to keep on living. I wrote:

"This stuff makes you strong or you crumble, and I have no intention of crumbling. Joe is a tough cookie and fighting to live. We had thought 2 weeks ago he wouldn't live through the week. He has this strong determination, and I am not sure what he is fighting for, BUT he is, and God must still have something for him to do. Even if it is just being kind and sweet, which he always is. He never complains, never asks for anything. Guess everyone could learn something from him."

Yes, that is the answer, he still has something to teach us. Now, if only we will learn. To be kind, sweet, loving to everyone, just as he always is. And he never complains. A good example for sure.