Conversations with Kerrie

I don’t remember Kerrie and I having too many of those deep, sisterly conversations before she was admitted into the hospital.. I think our last really meaningful conversation, prior to this summer, was in March of 2004.

We were in California and planning to drive from L.A. to San Francisco along Highway 1. Although we were a little nervous about driving along the coast, on those sharp turns, and with such a big drop to the Pacific Ocean we still couldn’t wait to do it. Somewhere along the stretch were Highway 1 and 110 run together I took a wrong turn and we got lost. We should have been driving along the coast, but everywhere we looked were farms, fields and lots and lots of “out in the middle of nowhere”. While Kerrie kept trying to keep the conversation light and keep my spirits up,the extent of my conversation was “Where’s the F-ing ocean? It should be right there on my left.. where’s the F-ing ocean? After the first hour it actually got a little funny. We finally found Highway 1.. just in time for dusk to set in. A dark fog was rolling in and it was beginning to rain. Just the kind of weather we wanted to have while driving along the edge of a mountain on the edge of the country.

If you’ve ever driven Highway 1 you know how sharp the turns are, how steep the hills can be and how it can be a little frightening. Well.. try it in the dark, in the fog and in the rain. Kerrie had her nails dug into the dashboard the entire time and I don’t think I ever let go of the wheel. We had one of our best conversations during the 3 hours it took us to get through this part of the Highway.. probably because we thought it we might not make it to the other end. We will both admit that we were pretty scared and it was nice to call our “Mommy” when we got back into the flat land and fields and could tell her we survived. Even though we were scared, I wouldn’t trade those three hours for anything.

Over the last 7 weeks we’ve had lots of good conversations, and spent a lot of nice time together, but I think our best conversations happen at night.. AFTER she’s asleep 🙂

The first time we had one of these “talks”, I didn’t realize she was actually asleep. She’ll look right at me, eyes open and speaks very clearly. She was holding up a pretty good conversation about taking on-line classes, for over 5 minutes, but I finally got a clue when she started telling me she had just dropped the flag off Jeff Gordon’s car.

I’ve learned a lot about Nascar, African Violets, Internet Classes and Amusement Parks all while she sleeps. Give her the nightly concoction of Benedryl, Atarax, a few miscellaneous antibiotics and painkillers all tossed together with an Ambien and I know it’s probably going to be an interesting evening. I’ve started keeping a pad and pencil next to me, so I can take notes.

Last night was one of the best yet. She had just fallen asleep, so I went out the bathroom to get ready for bed. I walked back into the room, ten minutes later, and was greeted by a very excited Kerrie:

Kerrie:” I’m winning a trophy for my asparagus.”
Jenn: “You’re what?”
Kerrie: “My aspargus. I’m getting a trophy for it.”
Jenn: “That’s great. What did you do with your aspargus?”
Kerrie ( arms waving in the air and using lots of hand expressions): “Oh, I’ve got this whole ‘Logan’s Run’ thing going on. You know.. (More arm and hand waving). I grow the aspargus and then take it (more hand waving) and then I kind of move it around and make it into shapes ( more hand and arm waving) and then you put it in soups and it makes different designs.”
Jenn: ” That’s great. Congratulations. How big is your asparagus?”
Kerrie: Don’t ask stupid questions. It’s big. I’m getting a trophy for it.”

I’m currently building a shelf in her room, so she can display her trophy, but she’s been saying something about “bringing the elephant home”, so I think I’m going to need a bigger shelf.