Sunday, December 28, 2014 

Oh my! Those were Rob’s words when I showed him the shower wall. Last night, I had quickly showered mom out of necessity. I usually shower her in the morning and then bleach the shower and hop in myself for my ablutions. Last night was the exception. I thought I could leave things till the morning. I was wrong.

The white wall of the shower—I discovered a few moments ago—was flecked with feces. My tactic: spray bleach, bleach, bleach everywhere and on everything, including the shampoo bottles in the corner niche. Before her next shower, I will empty the shower of everything to prevent contamination. My next serious step will be to replace the wooden cabinets with white cabinets. Fortunately, I can see stains on the white Corian sink countertop in there, but that’s not enough. We do not share towels (I keep ours hidden) or toilet paper (ditto), but she sometimes invades our stash, contaminating everything.

Mom’s demeanor is delightful. She smiles and is pleasant, if not excessively needy and often demanding. The one serious sore spot is hygiene. She is more difficult to tend to than Valentino (The Black Dog). I plug in her room ionizer daily now to rid her room of the smell of diapers. Works fine. At least the house doesn’t smell like a nursing home.