For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.

After a year and a half of being Dad's caregiver, I had adjusted to the routine of dealing with his needs and whatever else affected our daily lives. I was still spending time on the computer and writing when I had a few minutes to spare. I found reasons to get out of the house when I could, without causing Dad undue stress. I knew he hated me going out, but he tried not to show it. I kept him supplied with reading material, and he was still getting some visits from the home health care service. I didn’t want anything to happen to Dad, but there were times I wondered if this would be my life from now on.

November started off cold, but then it warmed up and we had rain almost every day. Farm Bureau Insurance called and said they were canceling the insurance on Dad’s house in Mississippi, because they had gone out to visit and found no one was living there. Being so far away, we weren’t able to go back often to check on the place. Earlier a person had wanted to rent it, but Dad said he wasn't interested. We knew he would rather be living there, but he couldn’t because he needed full time care, and we weren’t in a position to move back to Mississippi.

Dad needed dental work done in November. He had a top plate that didn’t fit right and only two teeth left on the bottom. I took him to a dental clinic which had the best prices in town. It was the clinic I used when I had a dental problem. They x-rayed and said the top plate needed to be realigned, and they wanted to take out one of the lower teeth.

Dad was upset, because he had always been prejudiced. Earlier he’d had to accept a black lady doctor for primary care. He dealt with going to her, but now he was assigned a black lady dentist. He didn’t believe she could possibly know what she was doing. I’m not sure if it was her race or because she was female, which upset him more. Dad was very conservative with money, and the price of doing the work didn’t go over well either. He didn’t understand why they wouldn’t extract both teeth. He was told he needed at least one tooth to stabilize his lower partial. 

We did make a two-day trip back to Mississippi in early November to check on things. The trip was hard on Dad, and he claimed he was unable to sleep while there. The last time we’d been there was in June, when he ended up in the hospital getting a pacemaker. We went by our rental house and acreage in the country while we were there. We also visited Ed’s sister, Helen, and my mother’s sister, Aunt Chris. She was in her 90s and in a nursing home. She had been suffering from dementia, but we caught her on a good day. Dad stayed in the car while we visited, but she was able to walk out to the car and speak to him. The trip home was long and stressful.

Connie’s internship with the fabric and furnishing company ended, and they hired her to work for them. Connie was selling a lot of fabric and she sold some furniture as well. They offered to send her to Atlanta for a few weeks of training, so they could call her their professional designer and could raise her salary. Since she was still in school, she wasn’t able to do that, but she did get a bonus because the customers liked her and she was able to sell a lot. Most of the part-time jobs she’d had up to this point involved sales. She had the right personality for being a good salesperson.

Both Connie and Charlie’s cars were old and giving them problems. They were looking to buy a better car. I thought they would be getting a low-mileage used model, but they ended up buying a brand-new car. We didn’t think it was wise, but it was done, so we stayed out of it.

Don was needing more money badly. The $10,000 loan we’d cosigned on was not nearly enough. He said he had to have $8,000 more right away. He’d visited 100 or more houses in the neighborhood of the clinic. He was having some bad experiences going door to door. Some of the people seemed afraid of him and thought it was suspicious that a chiropractor was coming to their door hoping to get patients.

Dr. Pollard was having him adjust some of his patients, but Don wasn’t being paid anything, because the doctor called it training. The room he’d be renting to see his own patients wouldn’t be ready for another month. Don was buying adjustment tables and other office furniture, and we were having to make his loan payments to avoid late fees. Kimberly said she could cash in her 401K in March and pay us back, if we would loan them more.

Carol was still seeing Roy. He was constantly on her mind, and she longed for more than friendship, but it was apparent he wasn’t interested in more. Randy, another friend who’d moved recently from Florida, was interested in Kim, Carol’s roommate, but Kim only wanted to be his friend. Carol realized she needed to end it with Roy so she could get her mind off of him. She felt sorry for Randy, having recently moved from Florida, with no plans for Thanksgiving, and invited him to join us. We had to change our celebration from Thursday to Friday to work around people who had jobs that required work on holidays. Connie and Charlie went to Mississippi to eat with Charlie’s family.

We had our usual feast with tons of leftovers to keep us in food for almost a week and now that it was over, it was on to preparations for Christmas. I had set a high precedent over the years with multiple gifts and stockings for everyone, and I felt compelled not to let my family down. Shopping was time consuming and I had to rely on ordering gifts. Connie came over and helped me with my large artificial Christmas tree and other decorations.

Dad’s 87th birthday was the 15th of December. Connie made him a cake and he got a sweater and other clothes from me. He’d outlived his dad by two years, and his mom had only lived to be 74. He seemed rather proud of being 87. We heard him on the intercom telling his cat all about it. I’m sure the cat was duly impressed.

In New Orleans, also on the 15th, a 700-foot freighter, moving down the Mississippi River, went out of control, lost power and plowed into the downtown riverfront, injuring 140 people. The pilot sounded a warning 3 minutes before it sliced bow-first into the part of the 180,000 square-foot, metal and glass mall that extends over the river. It barely missed a casino gambling ship and two cruise liners.

On the 17th, Don and Christi had a birthday. Don wanted an expensive activator for chiropractic treatments, so we agreed to combine his birthday gift with Christmas. Christi complained about her gifts. She wasn’t in the best of moods because her car was broken down, and we were having to loan her our van to get to her job. She needed another car, but she wasn’t in a position to afford one.

In less than two weeks, Christmas would be history, and we would be into a brand-new year. We could only wonder what new turns might lie in store for the Shelby family. It is good one can’t see into the future.