Wanting to Ring Her Bell...

      In order to understand the Humor in this post, I must first give you some background on Gram... First off she is Japanese, and 86 and old and fragile and stubborn and strong and smart and forgetful and brave and responsible and scared and child like... do you get my point... she is an amazing woman, but getting to know her is not easy... and takes someone very patient to figure her out. I have had many adventures in learning Gram, you see, she speaks her own dialect, one that only 2 other people speak fluently... Cindarella (me), and Prince Charming.
        Let me give you some examples... there was the first time I got a shopping list from Gram: we had just moved into our House where we live now, we had just moved the day before in a blizzard, our rental truck had cancelled on us, that morning we had spent the remainder of the morning calling any moving company that we could find in the yellow pages until we found a mover to move us that day. When we put the last box into the house that night it was almost midnight! So the next morning in the middle of unpacking boxes I realized that I needed to got o the store to get stuff for lunch... little did I know that when asking Gram if she needed anything, I got a whole list... She ask for Star Margarine... I know right... I was racking my brain trying to translate this... then It dawned on me Star Magazine...
       Okay I got it, I was ready to play this game... the next one she threw at me was easy she wanted wieners, Hot dogs! Okay confidence was building... then she ask for Little Debbie cakes, I was thrilled! I mean I already knew what she wanted at this point, but then the feisty side of me came out... and I said which ones gram... She then proceeded to tell me that it was named after and animal... and this animal is very tall with very long neck... So I responded with the appropriate animal based on her description of course and proudly ask Giraffe? Chuckling to myself as she said "yes Giraffe"... I explained that I thought she might have meant Zebra cakes, and she then gave her heart melting smile and said yes that's what I meant...  this is just one of the many stories I have about Gram... there is the time she told me the fire was "so comfortable" and wouldn't accept cozy or warm as other descriptive words... or the time that she told me she "have bad personality" because I had ask her if she wanted me to turn up the tv and she said no and changed her mind... the woman calls me Jackie for gosh sake... A name I would NEVER let anyone else in the world get away with. I love this woman... she is my Gram too...
        So Now lets get to the events of yesterday... I don't even know where to begin with this part of the story... so just bear with me... It was afternoon I had stepped out to the garage to have a Cigarette, Gram opened the garage door and looked awful she said she couldn't brethe, I jump up guide her back to her room and check her oxygen it is not working, so I go to the kitchen and get some water to test the oxygen tube for any flow and get a little bit of bubbles, so I put it back on gram and then went to check the valves on the machine. As I was looking at the machine in the other room I heard a thud on the floor. I ran to the hall, to find Gram limp on the floor barely breathing and unconsicous... I ran to my phone in the living room and I ran back to gram... My mind was racing do I call 911 or Hospice, our Hospice Nurse Michelle had told me to call them first, and although my gut was telling me to call 911 I went with what my brain said and that was we have a plan stick to it... call Hospice... all of that went thru my brain in the time it took me to see gram run to living room and then back to her... just a few seconds. anyway I picked her up with ease (thank you adrenaline)... but when I put her on the bed she bounced into the air and screamed out... (not so thank you adrinile)... but she screamed out and woke up... I then held her like a rag doll as I called for help... it was tramatic and very scarey for me... I thought she was going to die on me... but within a few min Michelle or Super Nurse as I like to call her was here... and everything was fine... We made a decision about bringing in a hospital bed, and then discussed ways to keep things like this from happening..... I suggested a bell so that if she was having a hard time breathing or something or in pain, that she could just ring it and we would be able to know that she needed us and she wouldn't waist her little bit of energy trying to find us which is what I believe made her pass out... 
    So now imagine me sitting here working on finishing another project so I can mark it off my list... when I hear THE BELL RING... everything in me stops, adrenaline streamed thru my veins, I jump up drop everything in my hands and take off running for her room kicking myself for not thinking and grabbing my phone. As I burst into her room she is sitting childlike and cheerfully in her bed... looking well rested from her afternoon nap, and asking for a "Bite" (food). I shook the whole time I made her lunch... and about halfway thru writing this blog... it is safe to say that she scared me so much, that I wanted to RING HER BELL...