Maryland trip

John Howard Hubbell had a stroke on February 18th. He went to Shady Grove Hospital and after stabilizing there, he was eventually moved to the Wilson Health Care Center at Asbury. He started physical therapy and we all had hopes of some recovery. He couldn't talk or use his right arm or leg, but he was alert and responsive. However, aspiration-induced pneumonia landed him back in the hospital in March. At this point, I decided to travel back to Maryland to see him and Mother. I left March 9th and returned on March 15th.
Dad was once again at Shady Grove Hospital. I simply joined Mother's schedule of heading over to the hospital late in the morning and staying until just before dinner. Her neighbors were wonderful in giving us rides so we didn't have to contend with the parking situation. Due to construction, parking space was severely limited. Dad seemed to enjoy listening to us and squeezing our hands when he wanted to emphasize a point or respond to us. I had the privilege of being there when two of his colleagues came to visit and read a number of emails from around the world that had been sent to them wishing John Hubbell well. Dad nodded at the names.




Mother and Dad's crocuses were just starting to bloom.




And the snowdrops.









Mother's doll collection, part 1.




part 2.




Shelton and Dottie arrived just a couple of days after I did. We drove to dinner that night and with great glee we parked in a handicapped space. Mother had acquired her official tag because her hip is giving her such trouble.




We all, including Wendy, Steve, and Vanessa, enjoyed dinner at Bob's Big Boy, aka Bob Evans.




We checked up on the gift shop with Mother and took a few things over that she'd been storing at home.




Hanging out at Wendy's one evening, Vanessa shared her fuse beads with Aunt Anne and Uncle Shelton.




Jonathan managed to get a day off work to come up from Richmond. He put together a wonderful collage of pictures from Mother and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Albuquerque.




Mother made these Hawaiian bears for Shelton and Dottie to commemorate their 25th wedding anniversary which they had celebrated with a trip to Hawaii.




Vanessa and the bears.




Wendy was tired like the rest of us, but she graciously brought over pumpkin soup to the villa anyway on the last night I was in town.




Vanessa had to complete her homework, though.




A rare occurance: all three siblings together.




One of Mother and Dad's dragons on the rug they had specially made for them in India. They ordered it on their first trip there in 1974.









Lisa's gift (the peacock) to Grandmommy sits on the TV.




The lamp presented to Dad by the University of Michigan.




Shelton and Dottie had the honor of using Mother and Dad's honeymoon sleeping bag as their guest bed.



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