Anna Grace and I have traveled to see grandmothers twice these past two weeks. Last week we went to Inglis to see my mother (AG’s grandmother). Inglis is a small town on the west side of Florida that’s only claim to fame is that it was the site of the filming of an Elvis movie called “Follow that Dream”. This explains why hwy 98 thru town is called “Follow that Dream Highway”. Anyhoo…. on the way home, as always happens, we missed the turn and instead of heading toward I-75 we headed south into Brooksville (about 1.25 hours directly west of Oakland). This puts you driving across a two lane road for a while but its a drive I love. I love “old” Florida, the Florida that the tourists never venture out to see. Oak hammocks, cracker style houses, out of contol kudzu, endless pastures. We drove thru the Withlacoochee State Forrest, over the Withlacoochee river, saw a couple of deer grazing beside the road just before sunset…. I love drives like that.
This past Wednesday AG and I loaded up in the car again and headed toward Tallahassee to see my maternal grandparents/ AG’s great-grandparents. My grandmother had a stroke a little over a year ago and seemed to be doing quite well but lately that isn’t the case. She is notorious for not taking her medicine, playing with her medicine, and ever since I can remember she would cut her antibiotic pills in half. Makes me insane!!! Well, now that she’s 87, these behaviors are getting unmanageable. She hadn’t taken any of her medicine in over a month, etc. I have tried to get my mom to move the grandparents up by her or put my grandmother in an assisted living facility for her own safety but she disagreed.
Anyway… We headed to Tallahassee and drove back in the same day. My grandmother wasn’t in good shape at all. She’s given up daily self care, etc. So, that was a bit sad. My grandfather is as alert and spry as ever. He’s doing all the housework, cooking, and taking care of grandma but he can’t get her to take her medicine. She just refuses. I think I now have my mother convinced to get a healthcare agency to come in twice a day. We’ll see.
Our drive to and from Tally was nice… Old Florida again. We are on the interstate but you get to see the horse farms, the Swannee river, Paynes Prairie, the rolling hills of north Florida. My mother and I have this odd tradition that every time you drive over the Swannee river you have to sing the song… ya know… the one that’s actually called “Old Folks at Home” but that in the south we call “The Swannee River Song”. You have to sing it. I sang it, AG thought I was crazy. It made me a bit sad to think that we won’t keep that tradition. These drives have made me a bit sentimental about what I will miss about Florida, the non-tourist stuff.
Here’s some pictures from our day trip to Tallahassee….
Anna Grace in the back seat with Dolly (her constant companion)
Butterflies dancing around my grandmother’s daylillies
and Anna Grace and her Great-Grandfather (age 87)
Dana is here this weekend so we are enjoying having him home. I have more to post (I’ve been meaning to post several times this week) but I’ll do that a bit later.
Toodles!