Good Day Sunshine

It was a pretty good day, except that Mom was a bit out of sorts when I arrived at the nursing home.  I think she was miffed because I was 'late' even though I had explained to her that there is a good deal of housework to do, and I can't spend all my time visiting her.  And her Pys. therapist was back from vacation, and gave Mom quite a workout, and it's tough on an 83 year old body.

Not that I enjoy it when she's crabby.  My Sister, Cathy, is right:  Mom and I are like an old married couple; we can bicker over the slightest detail, which would seem unimportant to an outsider.  These days, the quarrles are more along the lines of execretory functions--either asking if Mom has to go to the bathroom or needs to be changed because she's gone.  If the former, I have to take her to the main room, where an Aide will help her to the bathroom, and if the latter, I have to get a clean adult diaper, a clean pair of pants, and then take her to the main room, etc.

After Cathy made that observation, I have watched how the nurses and aides handle Mom when she gets in her Gloriana mood.  Sometimes, it's wisest just to take action:  explain what you are doing ( I'm taking you to the main room_ and do it.  She is not going to be swayed by my puny intellect , or bow to the force of my reasoning.  No, they don't call them 'The Greatest Generation" for nothing.

A few years ago, when I was researching the family tree, I came across some information about Mom's ancestral village.  Mom was born Elizabeth Regan, and her Grandfather, John C. Regan/O'Reagan, came from the town of Roscommon in Ireland.  In the late 18th Century, Roscommon had a Lady Hangman, known as " The Lady Betty".  I wonder if she was a Regan/O'Reagan--the BBC interview did not give Lady Betty's surname.

And there may be a link to a gangster on my Maternal Grandmother's branch of the family tree.  Mom's maternal Grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Diamond, who married Andrew Riley.  My Grandma was the oldest child, and only daughter--she had four younger brothers,  actually 5, because she never told the family about her brother Charles Walter Riley.  I found him on ancestry.com, through the 1920 census.  Mom never knew he existed.

But to get back on point, one branch of the family, descendants of Harry Riley, the youngest brother, said Legs Diamond, a bootlegger/mobster of the 1920's, was a cousin of Grandma Riley's.  I just love the idea that my Mom and Grandma, two Irish American Ladies, were related to a Jimmy Cagney type character. 

Perhaps My Lady Betty gets her stubborness from The Diamonds.