What a difference 2 hours makes

I went out at 3:30 this afternoon, son in tow to run a couple errands. "Thirty minutes, tops" I say to my son as we leave. A little background here quickly. We live RIGHT on the edge of the city. We have a neighbor lady who is about 85 years old who lives about another 1/8 of a mile outside of town. The woman (whom we shall refer to from here on out as Mrs. B) has no family. She has outlived everyone. She never had children as her husband passed away when they were very young. So when Mrs. B has to go to town, she walks. Walks everywhere. Scotto and I have always been neighborly and picked her up to take her into town or drive her home. Today was no different.

I saw Mrs. B on my way into town. She was headed home. I pulled over and asked her to hop in and she did. She then told me that she was just going home to pick up her prescription bottles and then had to go back to the pharmacy (not in so many words though, as she primarily speaks German and her English is not great). So I took her home and waited 10 minutes for her to grab her stuff and took her back to the pharmacy. We waited about 20 minutes and when she hadn't come out, we let her know we had to run to the bank before it closed and we'd be right back. We did this and came back to the pharmacy, and she was still inside. We went in and at the counter was Mrs. B and a very young male adult. He just looked at me and gave me that "help me" look and shook his head. I asked what was wrong and was told that Mrs. B had pulled two bottles of stool softener off the shelf and opened them, safety seal and all...looking at the pills to see if that indeed was what she took. Of course, the pharmacy can no longer sell them, so they tell her they're going to charge her for them. This, she does NOT understand. The poor kid behind the counter had no idea what to say next. She had two prescription medicines there to pick up too. We decided that the stool softeners she had opened were the right ones and put those (as well as the two prescriptions and another full bottle of stool softeners she had brought with her) into a plastic bag. On this one she wrote "take" in german. Then she put the old medicines in a paper bag, and on this one, she wrote "do not take" in german. We got everything settled. She paid for her prescriptions and stool softeners and we started to leave. The young man behind the counter said to me "you know she said she was going to take one pill from each bottle", meaning 3 different stool softeners plus her prescription pills. I told him I'd talk to her about it after we left and he said "oh good" LOL. Poor kid.

I got her in the car and asked her if there were anywhere else she needed to go. She said she wanted to go to the courthouse but it was already closed. I wrote my phone number in big numbers on the back of my business card and spoke to her about how she is only to take ONE pill out of ONE white bottle a day. NOT all three. She wrote this down on the back of the business card, on the front of the business card and on two places on the bag she was carrying. I hope she remembers. I made it clear if she did take all three, she'd end up sick. She said she understood. I really hope she did.

I asked her on the way home if she had any food. She started listing off the things she has in her house and I figured she has plenty of food. I told her to call me if she needs anything from me. I also asked her if she wanted I would make her some meals she could eat during the week. She said she cooked. I'm happy with that. I dropped her off at home and waited until she got in the house. Then I went about my errands.

My half hour errand run took me from 3:30 to 6:15. I know I'll hear from Mrs. B tomorrow, so I'm ready to take her wherever she needs to go. I just wish she knew someone around here to help her out after we leave. I know she's outlived everyone in her family. How awful it must be to be so old that everyone you ever knew is now gone. Remind me to be nicer to my kids so this never happens to me. I'm gonna miss Mrs. B when we leave.