Much and not much has happened in the last two months. 

On the much side, my father was moved out of the locked unit on February 14 to make room for someone who needed the extra supervision. Apparently he was the best candidate of the twelve residents on the unit. I knew the day would come eventually, but not so soon. I had a day to digest the request, and another day to organize the move. A move is a move: you gotta pack up and undecorate and then unpack and redecorate. His new room was on the 4th floor (vs. 2nd floor) with a view of Mount Royal. Being on another floor meant getting to know a team of nursing and attendant staff. For my dad's sitters and me, this was the main drawback. Still, we made the best of it. But I also asked the residence to notify me should a room become available on the 'regular side' of the 2nd floor.

A couple of days later, my mother had another bad case of diarrhea and rectal bleeding. This time, I opted to take her to the ER. Long story short: she was in hospital for six nights. Which meant I spent seven days with her (you really cannot leave a senior alone in hospital these days!)

In the meantime, my father's private sitters were facing a few challenges of their own with regard to the 4th floor staff. So a visit was due to discuss the issues with the nurses.

Fortunately, no work came in during those two weeks, so while I would normally worry about that, this time I was relieved I wasn't placed in a position of either refusing a job or having to work in the evening (into the night...)

On March 31, an auspicious date for my father, I was contacted to say a room had become available on the 2nd floor. Regretfully it was the result of a lovely lady passing away.  It didn't take long to decide and on the morning of April 1, with my brother in town, we went to move his belongings to the new room. We took my mother along. Don't know if she was in a particular mood that day, but she cried buckets seeing my dad the way he was (sleeping, no teeth). Then a bit later, after he woke up, she was crying again because she couldn't understand what he wanted, what he was trying to say, etc. Very upsetting for everyone! The next morning, I found her all teary again. Plus, she hadn't slept well either.

On the not much side, my father is pretty much the same but very slowly losing motor abilities. I hope with the nice weather coming that his energy will return. But my expectations, at this stage, are not very high. The best we can do is to ensure his days are peaceful, pleasant and pleasurable. The rest is a waiting game.