Feb. 13, 2005
Sunday, 5 p.m.

Mom went into the hospital on Friday for pain management and will be there till tomorrow, when they do another bone scan to find out what is causing the current discomfort, and possibly all week if they do radiation and if they need her there while they tweak her medications. As of today the drugs are still not handling the pain "as well as I would like," she pronounces from her bed. She doesn't complain, she talks and smiles as usual, but if she is asked, she tells.

Scott went with me this morning to visit her. We left the boys here in the house, doors locked, for less than two hours. When we returned they informed us that "Wendy" had knocked on the front door, asked to use the bathroom, done so, sat at the kitchen table and chatted with them for a few moments, then left.

"Hm," I said wonderingly, "that's weird." Wendy is our landlady, but she and her husband insist they'll phone before they come over, in spite of my invitation to drop in unannounced if they happen to be in the neighbourhood.

"Oh it wasn't that Wendy," Everett said. It was a woman they had never seen before, and we have no idea who she was. And they let her in! After all the times they have been told not to answer the door when they are here by themselves.

It put a scare into us, and we in turn put a scare into them. From now on if we're out and the doorbell rings, they'll be locking themselves in the bathroom with the phone, poised to dial 911 if they hear a noise!

But I'll be afraid to leave them alone for a while now, I bet. Just in case that woman was up to something besides an emergency void in the home of a stranger while she was out for a walk.