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How Do You Help Someone Prepare for Their Last Move?
Choosing what my parents bring to the nursing home is making me see what’s essential
I’ll be moving my parents cross-state this weekend — barring any COVID lockdowns at their new nursing facility. My weekly to-do list is a mess of back-to-the-office chores and prep for the move.
There’s a doodled formula: the rate at which my father uses his oxygen times the longest conceivable time we might take on the diagonal across Ohio. A note to self: find out how to get more O2 tanks. How many? I need to confirm, again, that the new facility is prepared for them. COVID is spiking all across the state. I’ve been playing the COVID-times version of a caretaker’s dilemma: is it better for them to move to a facility with known cases or stay at a facility with fewer cases currently, but also less care if they contract it?
We’ve blocked off the day prior to the move in order to sort through the minimal items at their assisted living — the clothes, books, and family photos. These personal affects were gathered hastily after a hip break, before I knew the move from the house would become permanent. It was before COVID lockdowns and forced separation, the pinch of loneliness, the lull of identical days without enough family nearby. There was one trip up to their…
