It’s been nearly a month now since I’ve been in Roanoke, and it’s definitely a beautiful Autumn season now. 
My company has been nice enough to let me work from Roanoke for the last month, while my parents are here recovering in a rehab/nursing home from two separate falls. Steve DOS is here with me as well, and we are staying in my parent’s home while they recover.
While we are staying at Mom and Dad’s home, my brother Andy and his partner live only five houses up the street. As I came here straight from my last business trip in New Orleans, I have my work laptop with me, so I can pretty much work anywhere, although obviously can’t be on a customer site.
While here, we have visited my parents twice daily, and are steadily noticing their improvement. When we first got here, we had to help Mom and Dad eat each meal in their room, as they were heavy medicated, and lacking energy. Now they are eating on their own (but still with a Mechanical diet) and eating in the dining room – tremendous improvement!
I posted this photo yesterday on Facebook yesterday of my parents at the Rehab Center, along with my thanks for all of the Rehab workers here and worldwide. For all those Nurses, Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists, Nurses aids, and other medical staff reading this, thank you very much for your compassionate service – you are the true Angels of this world!
While here we’ve visited my parents around the lunch and dinner hours, and would later have dinner most evenings with Andy and Art, as the rehab center had an early dinner at 5:30pm. Fortunately the rehab center is only a couple miles from Mom and Dad’s house, although it’s located up a really steep hill, actually a mountain peak.
I think Mom and Dad are actually enjoying eating with others in the dining room now, as opposed to eating in their rooms. There is a lady resident of the nursing home that comes around to each resident diner, and personally helps them on with their cloth bib (napkin), fastening around their necks. She is so adorable, and it is such a kind act seeing her helping others. Here she is below helping my Dad get ready for dinner.
Here is my brother Andy and I with Mom and Dad getting ready to be served their dinner.
As Mom and Dad eat early, Steve DOS and I, along with my brother Andy and Art often go out for dinner later in the evening. Here are a few of the restaurants we’ve been to over the last month we’ve been here.
Also, Art cooked for us a few times, and that’s always a real treat, with his home-style country cooking skills, and even home-made pizza with all the toppings!
The rehab/nursing home has a great staff, and they’ve really gotten to know us and my parents, probably because we go by a couple times a day. They had a Halloween party for the residents which was a lot of fun, and I took photos of the staff all decked out in their Halloween costumes, and gave them prints of the photos a couple days later.
The receptionist was the winner of the Halloween contest (and won a hundred dollars!), as she had an original outfit she made, reminiscent of the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”. I took a photo of her by the indoor bird cage (with cute little live and tiny birds), and later gave her a framed 8X10 photo of her which she was so surprised to get. She put it on her front desk too!
We also went to a friend of Andy and Art’s for a Halloween dinner/party which was wonderful, with custom decorations, and even better custom cooking with Halloween theming. 
Ms. Martha you sure know how to throw a classy Halloween bash!
Mom and Dad will probably be in Rehab another month or more, so we are looking ahead for options for them when they get out. It’s truly a reversal of living where the children are now taking care of their parents – like the song “Circle of Life”, but it is what it is.
Will write more later, (and still have to finish up my China posts from last month), but for now just enjoying the beautiful Autumn day! We love you Mom and Dad!
