Almost as soon as I told my friends and family I had signed up for NaNoWriMo 2008, a family emergency came up. My close female relative was found wandering confused after dark one night near her home. She said someone locked her out of her apartment and she couldn't get back in. She didn't realize the keys she had were her keys and that she could have gotten back in.
The administrators at the retirement community where she lives want to take steps to protect people who can't remember where they are and what they are doing. So, they moved her to the nursing facility for a week to make sure she's taking her medication. Tuesday, she moved to an assisted-living facility. She is quite upset. Not only does she have to get rid of 80% of her things, she is not allowed to leave the facility unattended.
(photo from er1danus on Flickr)
To make things even more unsettling, I live 2,000 miles away. She doesn't remember that I spent two complete days with her. Instead, in her mind, we spent hardly any time at all with her, but instead were plotting about her behind her back.
My November will be spent on airplanes, which is not bad for writing. But, I'll also be moving my close female relative's items to storage or prepping them for auction. My 50,000 goal just became a lot more difficult. Also, a colleague told me there is already a book told from the viewpoint of a man in a nursing home, Water for Elephants.
aw--i'm sorry to hear that! i have faith that you will perserve & will do well! maybe this should be part of the story...btw--thanks for the link!
Posted by: jane doh | November 2, 2008 at 08:36 PM