Body, Mind, and Spirit

Today was beauty shop day.  But the day was different than most days with mom; I could sense that from the moment I saw her.  Mom seemed content. She had just attended church on the second floor by a priest from St. Raphael’s; she really enjoyed attending mass again.  She had even had communion.  Going to church always made mom feel better.

The Community* has mass every Sunday on the first floor.  Now that mom has moved to the second floor she no longer feels comfortable going to the first floor even though the staff is happy to take her there as they do for many other residents from the second floor.   

Mom feels when she was on the first floor some of the other residents used to make fun of her because she needed help to play Bingo. They would say that her getting help was cheating even though mom would not have been able to play if someone did not help her.

Mom was also thrilled to show me that Shirley*, the activities director, had polished her nails this morning.  Mom has not had her nails polished in a couple years. Mom used to be a manicure in her earlier years and having someone else do her nails was a real treat.

After we came back from the beauty shop, mom was really feeling good.

Mom asked me if I brought the electric razor as she wanted me to shave her legs today.  I did.  She said her favorite part was when I massaged her legs after shaving them.

I also used mom’s small facial tool, to shave the peach fuzz off mom’s face.  She loves having this done and said her face felt very smooth.

"Mom, you had a spa day today.”

“What?”

“You had a day of pampering.”

“Thank you.  I really needed it.”

What I thought about when I was driving home was that today mom had a total body, mind and spirit day.