Up at 6 am to feed B & B guests. Help them plan their days. Communicate with employees.
Downstairs assisted living employee calls in sick. Two replacements are on vacation. Maria covers the entire house until an emergency replacement can be found.
9am - off to teach Zumba class at the local health club.
11:30am - shopping for supplies.
1:30 pm- comes home to find that someone forgot to clean half of the cabin - so she does that.
2:30 - Carolyn, a 96 year-old resident, is refusing to eat, drink, or get out of bed. Maria spends a couple of hours of one on one time with her, and slowly gets her to come around to take her meds, eat some soft foods, and drink a couple glasses of juice. She sacrifices her plans and shows love, mercy, compassion, and prays with Carolyn because her intuition tells her that Carolyn is getting near the end (I love this about Maria).
We are off to Soldotna for a one-day fishing get away, late, but I totally understand. Maria spends the entire 90 minute drive on the phone, communicating with Carolyn's daughter about Carolyn's condition, arranges for a doctor to get her pain meds on the weekend, and gets two close friends who work in hospice care to offer further support for Carolyn and her daughter.
Meanwhile, Bob, another long-term resident, has fallen twice, and is complaining about pain in his hip. Maria is on the phone with her worker, and Bob's dad - trying to make sure that is taken care of.
8pm, we are sitting on the bank of the Kenai, but it is too crowded to fish, so we eat snap peas and carrots while using a squeeze bottle of ranch dressing. Maria's phone battery is almost dead from all the calling and texting.
9:00pm - Difficult B&B guest who is only staying for one night calls and wants to use the laundry room to do her family's laundry. She won't take "no" for an answer. Maria has to explain that her water supply is from a spring. They have done 10 loads of laundry, 3 loads of dishes, and a dozen showers have been taken. The spring needs to re-charge before morning. A rule is a rule, and, there are two laundromats in town. Guest is not happy.
10pm phone battery is dead. We finally have room to fish. Hopefully this can take Maria's mind off of all this is going on back home.
12am. Maria catches the first big salmon, and then a 23-inch Dolly Varden Trout, which is trophy class sized.
2am - we have 6 big salmon on the stringer, and we are running out of gas. Plus, it's just dark enough for me to have trouble seeing to re-tie broken lines. I clean the fish quick, and we hike back up the steep bank to the truck and camper. Maria plugs in her phone to recharge.
8am - Maria is feeling guilty for not being home during all of this trouble. She's such a caretaker, and has a hard time giving herself a break. She goes and checks on her phone. With all of the trouble the night before, she forgot to have her employee put the dogs in for the night, so at 3am, the dogs are outside barking at the bear that has been hanging around - waking up all of the guests FOR SURE.
10am - otherwise, things seem to be covered at home. We linger and talk about all of the events, and wind up talking about many other things, when the phone rings, and Maria gets the news that Carolyn has died. We saddle up as fast as we can and head for home. Now Maria is really feeling bad. Carolyn has lived with her for 7 years, and Maria had hoped to be there when she passed.
11am. B&'B employee calls to say that she has forgotten to collect money from guests who have left for good, and what to do?
12:00 We arrive back in Homer. Maria is immediately downstairs, working with Carolyn's family, her employees, doing necessary paperwork, etc.
4:00 Maria finally emerges from downstairs. Carolyn's body has been taken to the funeral home, and everything is done. I try to give her a little TLC - backrub, brushing hair, kind words of encouragement, etc.
5:00 Sandwich and some quick time with dogs before new guests start to arrive.
6:00 Maria's youngest son Joey arrives for a visit. He's been out on the open sea commercial fishing for salmon for the past six weeks. We get a short visit before a half dozen of Joey's friends arrive to visit too. Momma Maria feeds her son, scratches his back, listens to accounts of the summer goings on, and makes room in her freezer for the big box of fish that Joey has delivered.
8:00 We play a quick round of horseshoes, and visit some more with Joey.
10:30 Maria gives Joey a ride back to his dads down the hill in Homer.
I notice that throughout all of this, she doesn't get angry - but is only mildly frustrated once or twice. She's unselfish - giving of all of her time and energy - always above and beyond the call of duty (this therapist might have to work on her a little about this :-)) Numerous times, she wonders what God is trying to teach her, or what lessons could be learned throughout all of this? She reads some bible verses for a source of comfort and strength.
11:30 She can finally unwind and go to bed. I think this is a really, really good woman who just needs to get a little more off her plate, and take some time for herself without feeling guilty. Some good support staff would also do wonders; we will have to work on that.
This has been a particularly tough day, but if you're a business owner, you know that things can snowball and get out of hand like this. I know, I sure remember the days at the Photo Center. Please say a prayer for Maria. I've revealed a lot in this post for any praying person to consider...
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