Records

I've been composing what I'll say to him since Tuesday. Most of the drafts aren't kind. The one I'll use is, "Spend a morning with her and Roz. Then tell me what you think we ought to do." Because I'd like to hear it. I've been deciding everything by myself f…

tell Russ before he gets here dinner at Mom's. Cam, Betty, Linda & hers Russ - Dad's dresser, w/ Mom

Jan 6 / Feb 9.5 / Mar 8 / Apr 12 / May 31 / Jun 14 / Jul 16.5 / Aug 18 / Sep 22 = 137. unpaid since June

Eliquis - 0. Rahimi's office, left a message w/ the nurse levothyroxine - 0. request sent thru Dwayne Lantus - 1 box metoprolol, losartan, furosemide - 2 each metformin - 3 atorvastatin, famotidine, sertraline - plenty donepezil - 11 eye drops - 1 strips - ea…

She didn't speak to me from Chattanooga to the Ooltewah exit. Then she said, "You put him up to that." I said no ma'am. That was true and it didn't feel true. I booked it. I told her it's an eye test, for the license. If she passes, I'll renew the license and…

She said she sees this, people my age who look after a parent and turn up in her office five years later with the parent's chart. She said I've got my mother's A1c from fifteen years ago. I told her I'd walk. She said that's what I told her last year. I can n…

BP 142/88 -> lisinopril 20 wt 221 LDL 96 CPAP 6.1 hrs avg back in 3 mo

We picked the last tomatoes. She made cornbread, start to finish, no help, didn't measure, and it was right. She told me how she met Dad at the skating rink in Benton. She was eighteen and he was just out of the Army and he couldn't skate. He held the rail th…

IN 2,560 (SS 1,948 + pension 612) OUT Roz 2,500 utilities, phone, TV 360 Evermont 214.50 LTC premium 239 (2,870/yr) house ins 108, car ins 62, property tax 122 groceries 380 church 100, hair 120, yard 105, pendant 35, paper 16.50, bugs 32 other 150 = ~4,540 S…

Whitlow billed Mom $1,736, May stay. Medicare hospital deductible, Plan G pays that denied - "member name does not match". card says LORRAINE H PRUITT, Medicare says M. H = Hollis, typed in 2010 8/27 Evermont - Joy, ref EV-2608-55172. fixing it, wanted her Me…

Dad bought that car for her. He drove it home and handed her the keys in the carport and said it's got heated seats, Lorraine. She's had it twelve years and it has fifty-six thousand miles on it and it's the last thing she does by herself. I can take the keys…

- June 2025: 50 min home from Food City - Feb: backed into the trash can - July: pulled out in front of a truck on 25th (Dot) - Aug 20: passenger mirror, mailbox ~15 miles a week license is up this fall

- weights 147-150 since May - dizzy standing up 2x last wk. BP 112/64 once - did the May fluids hurt anything - Eliquis still right at 2.5? - knee injection (Voss) on the blood thinner? bring: weight calendar, BP log, med list

I could be sick about that. Three years. But she wouldn't have qualified at three mornings a week with her mind mostly right. She does now. Dad bought it in 2004 from a man at church, for both of them. His lapsed when he died. He never used a dime of it. He n…

they want: - claim form + the POA - sent - doctor's statement (2 of 6, or cognitive) - Tolbert's letter - agency license + plan of care - Pam - their nurse comes to the house 90 days OF PAID CARE, not calendar, from today. 5 days/wk = 18 wks. ~Nov 12 then pay…

She asked, because she's in nursing school now and they teach them to ask, whether I have my own papers done. A will. Somebody to speak for me. I said I'd get to it. She said, "Dad. You have a folder for Grandma's cat." I looked last night. The only will I ev…

Mon - ate good. bath. sugar 162. wt 149 Tues - asked for Mr. Walter at breakfast, settled Weds - didn't want to dress. tried again at 10, fine Thurs - hair Fri - bath. Thurs evening pills still in the box

- will: none. the 2004 one w/ Denise leaves it all to Denise - POA: none - health care agent: none. Cam? Carla? ask first - 401k + life ins beneficiaries: Cam. checked Evelyn - $850 for the set

20 hrs x 29 = $580/wk, ~2,500/mo hair appt is inside her hours now weekends me Tolbert is writing the letter

Roz and I talked on the carport. She'll do five mornings. I called Pam and it starts the first of June. That's twenty-five hundred a month, and Mom brings in twenty-five sixty. So from here on the house, the lights, the insurance and the groceries all come ou…

med list her cards. POA + health care form allergy card hearing aids + charger, glasses, teeth cup her meter. NOT her insulin long phone cord robe, gripper socks, sweater $20 in ones

- sudden: more confused than her normal, sleepy, mean, seeing things - not eating, new falls - may never say it burns - fever maybe FIRST: urine test. Tolbert's does a same-day drop off, Roz can take the cup

She's on an IV. I told three different people about the penicillin and the sulfa. It was already on her wristband. I told them anyway. She knew me tonight. She didn't know the year. Around eight she asked me, "Has Walter eaten?" I said yes ma'am, he's eaten.…

- urinary infection. at her age w/ the memory that alone can do it. "delirium on top of dementia". should mostly clear - IV antibiotic picked around the penicillin and sulfa. told them twice, it's on her band - kidneys took a hit, creatinine 1.8. fluids slow…

- call blocking on (*77) - sign by the phone - told the bank. her debit card stays in MY wallet, she has $40 cash

clerk says, to put it in Mom's: - certified death cert (have 3) - the title - affidavit of inheritance, notarized, form's at the counter - Mom signs, or me as POA w/ the POA - $20-something clerk closes 4:30 Wanda: title first, then the insurance

I had the CPAP on all night. It isn't that. It's five-thirty to ten, six days, and the seventh I cook. Didn't tell anybody.

mine - W-2, 1098, Cam's 1098-T, FSA Mom - SSA-1099, 1099-R x2, CD interest, Gentle Ridge 2025 $17,160, copays 1,236, miles 705 fees 325 / 210

Tolbert - regular doctor. every 4 mo + wellness in June Rahimi - heart, blood thinner, fluid pill. Jan, July Abernathy - diabetes, thyroid, bone shot. Chattanooga Tsai - kidneys, every 4 mo Mehta - memory, every 6 mo. Chattanooga Purcell - eyes. October Marko…

Russ's three hundred came twice and stopped. I'm not going to chase my brother for three hundred dollars. There's a long-term-care policy in the fire box that Dad bought in 2004. I've been paying the premium for three years without reading it. I'm going to re…

Social Security $2,189.80 gross. minus Part B 202.90, minus drug plan 38.90 = $1,948.00 deposited, 2nd Wednesday Pension (Calloway Range, survivor half) $612.00 on the 1st IRA - has to take out about $1,610 this December CD interest ~$2,400 for the year, stay…

Medicare 4KT7-WL2-MS63 Evermont Plan G - EVG80447162 - 888-555-0114 SilverPine Rx (NEW 1/1/26) - SPR40981775 - grp PDPTN04 - BIN 610742 - PCN SPRX house - Dunmore & Pike DP-H-0381-775426 - Wanda 423-555-0178 Buick - Dunmore & Pike DP-A-0381-520917 long-term c…

Camille made the nursing program's short list. Carla is still answering the phone.

Tolbert x5 - 30 Rahimi x4 - 36 Tsai x3 - 27 Abernathy x4 - 232 Mehta x3 - 198 MRI - 64 eyes, feet, ears, teeth - 9 trips ~70 Whitlow Jan + July ER - 48 ~705

shower bar, ramp, lanyard 163.28 scale 32.97 groceries ~40/wk = ~2,000 Clementine vet 286 her Christmas gifts 215 gas - 148 trips x 62 mi paid back: 0

Cam - stethoscope $110, gas card Carla - ?? Roz - $150 Dwayne & the pharmacy girls - pralines

He made me promise to look after her. He didn't say how. He could have meant keep her in that house no matter what. He could have meant see that she's safe wherever that is. He was a precise man and he left that one loose.

4,650 studio + 600 level 2 care = 5,250. memory care 6,400. 2 mo wait Wrenfield Place (Ooltewah) 5,200 all in, memory care 6,900. Greg's mother is here - night staff turns over $500 refundable holds a spot her income ~2,500

Castleberry 31.40 -> 36.10, Eliquis up a tier, $112 SilverPine Rx 38.90, Eliquis 47, Lantus 35. Sorrelwood in network enrolled 11/2, conf SPR-ENR-7731942 new numbers to Dwayne before January

I said thank you. I meant it and I also wanted to say that I've spent more than that on gas. He said, "I know you're carrying it." I said somebody has to live here. He said that's not fair. It isn't. He didn't move to Idaho to get away from this. He moved to…

10/20 300 11/18 300 12 - 1 -

Supper was a drive-thru on 64 again, eaten at the light at Paul Huff. That's four this week. Mom asked me today if I was getting enough rest. She had me by the chin when she said it, like I was eight. For a second she was all the way there, the whole woman, a…

- don't quiz her. don't say "remember?" - where's Dad: "he's not here right now, Mom." then the garden - late afternoon is the worst. lights on early, Andy on, something to fold - hymns - snap beans, fold towels, peel peaches. let her - one thing at a time

rent 1,240, her half 620. deposit 620 utilities in Maddie's name. internet in Cam's street parking, zone F, $60/yr renters insurance $14/mo - CHECK she did it her window doesn't lock - texted Strode

two boxes, 7 days each. BLUE = morning. PURPLE = bedtime. MORNING (Roz hands it to her w/ breakfast, except the thyroid) levothyroxine 88 - FIRST, by itself, empty stomach. the little green box Eliquis 2.5 metoprolol 50 losartan 50 furosemide 40 metformin 500…

I yelled at her. In the car, after. I said what is the point of any of this if you take the thing off. I said do you want to end up in a home. She didn't say anything. She looked out the window. When we got to her house she said, "I just wanted to be clean fo…

- 2nd grab bar, vertical, at the entry - pendant on a lanyard that doesn't come off - threshold ramp, carport door - glue-down strips, not the suction mat

She called me Walter three times today. Not Walt. One of those times she was talking to me, and two of them she was talking to him. I answer either way.

He told her straight, with me sitting there. He said, "Mrs. Pruitt, your memory isn't working the way it should, and I think it's the beginning of Alzheimer's disease." She said, "Well. My mother had hardening of the arteries." He said that may have been the…

- mild dementia, most likely Alzheimer's type, maybe some small strokes. MRI - donepezil 5 at bedtime. may slow it. stomach upset - STOP gabapentin - alone: OK for now WITH the aide, pendant, daily check, stove knobs off or a shutoff. "this is a today answer"…

- same question 3-4x in an hour - checkbook: quit summer 2023 - stove eye left on, twice (March, May) - calls me Walter sometimes - can't do the pill box w/o Roz - still good: church, hymns, recipes, who everybody's people are - 50 min home from Food City ask…

He called me in Friday. He wasn't hard about it. He asked if I've got too much on me. I said no. He said I've been out or left early thirty-one times since January, he had Shelly count. He said take the family leave, on paper, the real thing, so it's protecte…

14 RTUs off and back. 7.5 ton x8, 12.5 x4, 20 x2 curb adapters on the 20s if they swap crane 2 mobilizations, 80 ton, 110 ft reach roof gas piping rusted thru in 3 places - exclude or price LDs $1,000/day

Russ and Tammy came. First time he's been in that house since the funeral. He went in the den and stood where the hospital bed was. He and I ended up on the carport after, like always. He said she seems great. I said she's great for two hours with a room full…

cake - white, yellow roses, "Happy 80th Lorraine", half sheet. pick up Sat by 4 Russ & Tammy in Fri night, out Mon under 2 hrs

in: no-salt canned veg, frozen veg, unsalted tops, Mrs Dash bacon 1 slice Sundays

scale stays on the tile Roz writes it on the fridge calendar M-W-F, Mom the other days. I check Sundays

The doctor asked what she eats. I told her about my Sunday cooking, the low-salt chicken, how I label it. I was proud of it. Then she asked what else is in the pantry. Canned green beans. Saltines. Soup. I'd been cooking her supper and never once looked at wh…

- heart failure, not a heart attack. squeezes OK but it's stiff, doesn't fill, fluid backs up - lungs, legs - the amlodipine was making the swelling worse. stopped - Lasix by IV till she's "dry", then pills at double - 4 lb off overnight, all water - salt. th…

Mom gave me a card with a twenty in it, same as when I was ten. She'd signed it "Mother and Daddy" and then scratched through "and Daddy."

Russ called during the Lions game. Said next year for sure. Mom said, "He's so busy." Carla came for dessert. Mom looked her over and asked who her people were. Carla told her. Mom knew a Benford who drove a bread truck. That was Carla's uncle.

INPUT must say HDMI 1 Andy Griffith ch 122 church livestream is the iPad, Sun 10:45 big button remote only

It's four minutes. I've left a ballgame, a supper and a movie to make it. Carla was in the movie.

8/24 212 / 188 8/26 198 / 240 8/28 187 / 203 8/31 176 / 195 9/2 181 / 221 9/4 169 /

WALT cell 423-555-0148 WALT work 423-555-0117 Mrs. Jenkins 423-555-0136 Roz 423-555-0165 Betty 423-555-0109 Russ 423-555-0124 Dr. Tolbert 423-555-0112 Pharmacy 423-555-0130 PRESS THE BUTTON if you fall

1. new needle every time 2. dial 2, point up, press - see a drop 3. dial the dose 4. belly, 2 in from the navel, switch sides 5. press, count 10 slow 6. needle in the red jug pen out of the fridge is good 28 days - sharpie the date on it 9 pm. I call. under 8…

By the time I got to Whitlow she was sitting up eating graham crackers and asked me why I wasn't at work. It was Wednesday. Roz comes Wednesday. If it had been Tuesday, nobody opens that door until I call at nine at night. They've stopped the pill that did it…

ER says the glipizide. took it and didn't eat, or took it twice. glipizide is DONE. if Roz had been a Tuesday - get: real meter, glucose tablets - kitchen, purse, nightstand

twin XL sheets x2, topper, fan, power strip, shower caddy, hooks, mini fridge dolly + straps inhaler x2, insurance card, meningitis paperwork leave by 7

Tolbert said let's watch it. He said it to me in the hall, not in front of her. She knows the words to four hundred hymns. She knows what Dot Rainey's mother died of. She couldn't tell you what she had for lunch. I've been saying she's just getting older. I'v…

Denise sat two seats down from me. We were fine. Mom told every person at lunch that Camille was going to be a nurse. Cam hasn't decided that. I think Mom decided it. I wished Dad had seen it.

6 tickets - me, Mom (wheelchair sec 112), Denise + Brian, Betty, Carla lunch 12:45 for 8 under Pruitt Mom's pills, her tag

label w/ the DAY not the date

Then I did mine. Cam starts college in August. I met somebody. Mike's wife's cousin, at their fish fry. Carla. She's a dental hygienist and she's been divorced longer than I have. I told her inside of ten minutes that I spend three days a week at my mother's.…

1 addenda - all, acknowledged 2 equipment quotes inside 30 days - Trey 3 controls number IN, not "plug" 4 crane / rigging / roof protection 5 temp heat - who 6 bond 7 sales tax on equipment 9.25 8 Ramon checks my math

mine: W-2, 1098, FSA, property tax, Tanager interest Mom: SSA-1099, 1099-R pension, 1099-R IRA, 1099-INT x2, Gentle Ridge 2023 = $13,416 (March on) her copays + mileage - still have to add those up

I called her four times a day. Mrs. Jenkins walked over twice in her late husband's boots. Bobby Kirkland salted her carport. She was fine. She'd been eating out of the freezer and had the heat on 78. She said, "I got along."

9 in iron skillet, bacon grease, oven 450 till it smokes 2 c white self-rising cornmeal 1 egg buttermilk till it looks right (~1 3/4 c) NO sugar hot skillet, should sizzle. 20-25 min

Betty - pecan pie, Linda's bringing her Russ - no

charger every night, green light wax guards monthly. domes medium closed look: nightstand, kitchen windowsill, robe pocket, butter dish Tellman cleans free Tu/Th

April 26, the oncologist, in a room with a poster of a waterfall. Stage four. Both lungs, his liver, a spot on his spine. He asked her if he could still mow. One round of chemo in May. He was sick nine days and said that's enough of that. Father's Day we fish…

Russ called to ask if it was done and whether there was anything he needed to sign. There wasn't. There never was. I'm not mad at him. That's not right, I'm some mad at him. He was the one Dad laughed with. I was the one Dad gave the list to.

metformin cut in half, 500 AM 500 supper NO Advil Aleve Motrin Goody's. Tylenol only tell them before any scan w/ dye water but not too much (heart). nobody has a number back in 4 mo, labs the week before

She's lost eleven pounds. She cries around four in the afternoon, which Roz says is when he used to come in from the shop. He put her on a pill for it. She asked me if that meant she was crazy. I said no, it means you were married fifty-eight years. She said…

will eat: tomato soup, pimento cheese, peaches, eggs, the church chicken salad, vanilla wafers Roz: small plate, don't ask, set it down

PRUITT WALTER EUGENE / MAR 22 1941 - NOV 9 2022 / US ARMY LORRAINE MAE / FEB 11 1945 - MARRIED JUNE 20 1964 dogwood in the corner. 3,480

Easter tomorrow. I'll take her to church. First time back since the hip. I went out to the shop to find a level and stood there. It still smells like him. Cut pine and 3-in-1 oil. I found the level and went back in.

Mom - Pinnock Valley Bank, routing 064117823 checking 30418-7726 (SS and pension in, bills out) savings 30418-9941 CD $40,000, 4.10%, matures 3/15/2027 CD $20,000, 3.85%, matures 9/15/2027 IRA (was Dad's) about $38k - has to take some out every December Me -…

Mom signed with her good pen. Her hand shakes some now but it's still the signature off every permission slip I ever carried to school. So now I can sign her name with mine after it. My back went out moving her bed.

what she said, near as I can get it: - no machines if she isn't coming back - no feeding tube - yes antibiotics, fluids, oxygen, comfort - CPR: "if it's quick, yes. if I'm already gone, let me go." Evelyn wrote yes for now, ask the doctor again later - at hom…

originals stay in their vault. 3 certified copies of each $650 w/ the will update take one to: Pinnock Valley, Tolbert, Whitlow, Wanda

doesn't: shots, filling the box (agency rule), driving Mom in her own car - she uses the Buick she writes in the spiral notebook on the table

the Chattanooga one - $31, 3 hr min church lady (Dot knows her) - $18 cash, no backup Gentle Ridge. M-W-F 9-1 = $312/wk

[x] grab bars - 24 at the toilet, 24 + 16 at the tub [x] shower chair, raised seat [ ] throw rugs [x] night lights hall bath kitchen [ ] bed - so she gets out on the right side [x] lift chair [ ] pendant - order [ ] rail at the carport step, 7 in rise [ ] som…

Mom walked twelve feet on the walker today. She's clearer than she was in the hospital but she asked me twice when Walter was coming to get her. The second time I said, "I'm here, Mom," and she looked at me and I watched her figure it out. I've got about two…

- Mrs Jenkins (2221) has one - spare on a nail inside Dad's shop, left of the door, behind the pegboard - mine: the brass one w/ the red nail polish - lockbox going on the carport post back deadbolt sticks, lift the knob

PT tomorrow. Eliquis restarts tomorrow night confused last night, pulled at her IV, asked for Dad rehab 3 wks or so, Linden Court has a bed Tues. Medicare 20 days full bring: glasses, teeth cup, the blue robe

Surgery was this afternoon. Dr. Voss says it went fine. She's 77 with a bad heart and diabetes and it went fine. I sat in the same waiting room where I sat for her knee, and that time Dad was beside me working the crossword in pen. I kept turning to say somet…

tonsils - child hysterectomy 1987 gallbladder 1996 right knee replaced 10/16/2018 Voss cataracts - R 2/18/2020, L 3/10/2020 Purcell skin cancer off her nose 9/14/2021 left hip 2/3/2023 Voss no pacemaker, no stents, never smoked

PENICILLIN - hives. as a girl and again about 1985 SULFA (Bactrim) - rash, lips swelled, 2017 not allergies but tell them: codeine / oxycodone - throws up lisinopril - cough tape tears her skin, ask for paper tape no latex. no foods.

furnace filter 16x25x4 media, 2x a year water shutoff basement, left of the water heater, red handle main 200A, panel in the garage. #14 kitchen counter, #22 sump trash Thursday

She's sleeping in her chair, not the bed. She says the bed is too big. Dennis asked on Friday how I'm holding up and I said fine.

Russ took: Browning, tackle box, framing square, footlocker me: table saw, drill press, Snap-on box, the bench w/ the vise stays: mower, weedeater, carport cabinet, his chair Cody - torque wrenches, yes 11 coffee cans of screws ??

Russ called at two. Ten minutes. Russ had a case made for the flag and mailed it. Walnut, with Dad's name on a brass plate. She held it a long time. Then she said Walter would have wanted to know what it cost.

Social Security Tuesday. Probate hearing the 19th. The pension people want a form notarized. Every one of them wants an original death certificate and then mails it back three weeks later, or doesn't. It's something to do.

furnace filter 20x25x1, hall return, every 2 mo water shutoff at the meter by the street, key hangs in the shop. inside one - crawlspace hatch, hall closet floor breakers - carport storage room. Dad's pencil labels, half wrong. range = top right double gas sh…

[x] death certs, ordered 10 [x] Social Security - Teague reported it. Mom appt 12/6 [x] pension - Calloway Range, survivor form [x] Lanternfield life claim LF-7730195 [ ] probate - hearing 12/19 [ ] his savings acct needs the letters [ ] truck title [ ] Buick…

Dot Rainey - casserole, sat w/ Mom both nights Mrs Jenkins - pound cake, ham Kirklands - mowed & raked Sunday school class - the meal Tannehill's - peace lily pallbearers - Mike, Greg, Bobby K, Cody, Harold's boy, Luis Tanya Tolbert's office - card

Russ and I carried him with four others. He weighed nothing. All day people called me Walter. I've been Walt since I was six so they could tell us apart. Russ flew out this morning. Cam went back to school today, her choice. I'm at Mom's tonight. She's asleep…

will is at Castellaw's. me executor all to Mom. watch to me, Browning to Russ sell the truck New Harmony, Holloway. "not too long"

Born March 22, 1941 in Bradley County to the late Ernest and Vida Pruitt. U.S. Army, 1960-1963, stationed in Germany. He worked 38 years at the range plant and retired in 2003. Member of New Harmony Baptist Church, where he kept the grounds. Survived by his w…

visitation Sat 11/12 5-8. service Sun 2:00 New Harmony. burial after Chestuee Hills Memorial Park, Garden of Peace, lot 114. Dad space 3, Mom's is 4. bought 1996 total 11,870 - casket 3,200, vault 1,450, services 4,900, opening/closing 1,300, flowers & the re…

I sat there a minute. Then I woke Mom. Then I called hospice, and Tanya came at eleven and did what they do, and the funeral home came at one in the morning. Two men in suits at one in the morning, very gentle with him. Called Russ at 10:15 our time. He'd gon…