THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ADDIE

At the HICKORY POINTE CARE & REHAB CE

ADDIE THANK YOU FOR THE KIND WORDS!

From: "Addie Hickman"

Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 1:26 PM

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A GREAT 2008
May this season be a wonderful time for making good memories!  May God Bless each of you abundantly and minister to your needs as only He knows them! My need right now is much needed physical strength and I am requesting you drink lots of juice for physical strength for me that I am so much in need of.   Although God is so good to me.  I could not survive without Him.  He is truly amazing for what he does for this old lady in Kansas……….. Addie here

Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 9:39 PM
Hello again,
How soon are you moving and is it the Hickory Pointe Care and Rehab in Oskaloosa that you are going to?   I was hoping, that if you were actually going, that it would be here in Topeka.   Let me know cause I will contact them and see if we can't get our group scheduled in there and I will get to see you.  We go to several nursing homes here in Topeka you know.  And I am glad you will have the internet cause we can keep in touch.  I too wish we would have been communicating earlier - you are such a wonderful person to know and I am so glad that I have been blessed to be your friend as well as your cousin.  Now, enough of that mushy stuff!  Let me know exactly where you're going, okay? Meanwhile, keep you chin up and remember God loves you as do I and my sister.  Nothing happens to us that God doesn't allow for a reason you know.  Sometimes it is hard to understand why some things happen to us in life,  but God is still in control and that is reassuring to say the least.  Anyway, let me know where you're headed and I'll be talkin at Ya!  Love, Your Fredonna

Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 11:20 AM
Dear Addie,
 
Yes I will certainly pray for you and your coming move.  Please send me your new snail-mail address and your e-mail address if it happens to change.  I have so much enjoyed corresponding with you, and receiving many uplifting messages from you.
 
Yes, our God is amazing and if we stop to listen, he will let us know what his plans for us are. And I do believe that he still has work for you to do.  You have been a wonderful inspiration to me, especially considering your physical limitations.  It is very possible that your ability to inspire people is still the work God has for you to continue.  You have the wonderful ability to
give people hope.
 
I am so glad that my music has been precious to you.  And please, if you ever need a replacement of the music, let me know and I will very gladly send you replacements, either CDs or cassette tapes.
 
In His love, Dwight


Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 12:01 AM
From: Addie Hickman
Subject: Re: Personal email

Yes My Fredonna, I am sure that is where I am going. It is in Oskaloosa.  And it is scheduled for in the morning, Tuesday.  Spent from late morning in ER at St. Francis and going through channels and then the nursing home representative came so it was evening before we got out of there and the boys know how well I like to go to Sam's for my wiener [hot dog] so they took me there before coming home.  Kin has had to use the lift to get me from place to place.  Lenney will have the pleasure tonight getting me on the pot and then to bed!  Should be a circus!  grinnnn

Thanks for your kind words.  It would be wonderful to have your group come.  I don't know how long it will take before I will be able to get on internet but have been told I will be able to and also have my Sky Angel Dish.  Of course, the family, will have to pay the internet fee, but Loraine and Gary have been that anyway for a long time! And Gary seems to think I can keep my same e address but I don't know. It would be wonderful if I could as I have so many genealogy interests with queries that I field from time to time.  And I can't give up my genealogy work and search. If you want to read about me sometime or want to get bored go out to http://www.gloryway.com/addie.htm  Gloria [HCPD friend] has out did herself making this old lady look good.  Not deserving but appreciate her love.  It will be a while on my dish also as Ray, fellow, from church has gone on Maranatha to Guloppus [can't spell] for a couple weeks and he always helps me with my dish etc. with a buddy of Gary's, Jim Roberts.

My Fredonna I am lazy so excuse me for sending you a copy of what I wrote to one of my co-members of HCPD [genealogy society we belong to].    But it explains a little more of what is going on with me right now.  My hand is going to sleep so I am taking the lazy way out.  Also forgive me for sending this to various others because I need to let some others know and my hand right now isn't doing exactly what it needs to....... grinnnnn  

Your sis wrote and ask me about my strength if it was better.  ... so I told her a little but do not want her upset.  I sent you a blind copy of it so you would know.  She is so precious to me I do not want her upset.  And really everything will be fine.  Just another chapter in my life and I will be happy.  That is way because I cannot do otherwise and be content.  Does that make sense....... Love you dear one.  Adeline



Dear Dwight,
Thanks for you continued prayers, I do need them.  We spent most of the day at the hospital today and I am scheduled to check into the nursing home at Oskaloosa in the morning sometime.  My son, Lenney, from Georgia came, he was just here at Christmas and had to turn around and come right back.  Kin, my youngest, has spent last several days with me and has had to use the lift for most of my transfers.  My son, Kin, says mom you have fought a gallant fight and everyone couldn't believe that I managed as long as I did alone in this wheel chair.  Good to have sons to love and care for you, you know.  And of course, brag on you a little bit also, if it is true or not!  grinnnnnn

As for your music...... I would love to have CD of it.  I think what I am giving you is correct.  My address at my home is 642 NE Forest Ave.  Topeka, Kansas 66616.   785 357-1893.        Lived here since 1955.  When I get on line up there I will write you.  But it will take a little while I think.  New experience or should I say a new Adventure.  I am glad my Heavenly Father is going with me!

My son, Kin, says I can have internet and also my 3ABN dish which is so precious to me.  With all the Christian networks.  Actually it is Sky Angel Dish but 3ABN is my favorite station and also Safe TV channel.

Well thanks for being a good friend and the encouragement you always give this old lady is really most graciously appreciated.  God Bless you and yours abundantly.  In Christian Love,   Addie here

HICKORY POINTE CARE & REHAB CE
(785) 863-2108
700 CHEROKEE PO BOX 307
OSKALOOSA, KS 66066

January 23, 2008  Update on Addie Hickman's status

 

Addie Hickman, Room 19

Hickory Pointe Care & Rehabilitation Center

P. O. Box 307

Oskaloosa , KS 66066

 

Mom's phone in her room in the nursing home:  785-863-2877

 

We just spoke with Mom (Addie Hickman) and asked her to dictate a note to all of you.  She said there was nothing to write about except she was extremely delighted with all the cards and letters sent to her by snail mail.  She said one day she received cards and letters from 7 different states.  So I ask her some questions and the following is what I understood she said:

 

Mom is not quite settled into her nursing home yet.  Her two sons (Lenney and Kin) currently in KS have been sick & nobody wants to transmit the germs to her, so fixing her room & getting her own hospital bed from home so Mom can get in and out of bed by her self, her power chair to get her legs up in the air during the day time to help drain fluids off her legs and computer set up, all have been put on hold.  Son Lenney is working at her home to get things organized & keep her bills paid, etc.   Son Kin is well enough to come visit Mom tonight.  Mom's health is not much better than when she entered the nursing home.  She continues to be very weak at times.  Fluids are building in her legs and hip.  Staffing is such in the nursing home that they cannot help her up periodically to keep the leg muscles in tone.  Mom's new doctor at the nursing home has prescribed that Mom be taken to the hospital to see if any blood clots are in her legs (that was a week ago and now it is projected that they will not get Mom to the hospital until Feb).   Mom said she had to choose between physical therapy and a bath and that she had to have physical therapy   The nursing home has given her two baths in two weeks.  Mom has already fallen to the floor at least three different times while the staff has been helping her up and around.  Mom is double jointed and is very tough to handle.  Mom is also depressed & thinks the Lord has turned his face from her.

 

On the brighter side, Mom seems to enjoy eating with the rest of the residents; Mom enjoys some of the entertainment there such as one worker’s husband is a country western singer & comes each Monday to entertain the residents and plays/sings San Antonio Rose for Mom – a very favorite song she and Dad enjoyed together; the nursing home is giving her some physical therapy;  Mom has been going to some of the devotionals; reads – people have brought her devotional books & westerns – large print is always nice as her eyesight isn’t what it once was.  It’s been a very long 2 weeks for Mom!

 

Most of us are going to be unlucky enough to be in a nursing home some day.  You may want to familiarize yourself with the Medicare/Medicaid regulations.  You can find these regulations on line. 

 

Mom asks for prayers for healing and for up lifting her faith in the Lord.

My Dear Sons!

Listen up.  I told you boys many times, live your life well, enjoy every moment you can, do what you want to do while you are young whatever your desires but to keep them within your financial status and what is morally correct!

When I was a little girl all I ever wanted for Christmas was a doll and always got one.  I played house with a large family of dolls.  I had a good imagination!  My daddy built me a play house outside in summer, the rooms were outlined with stakes and binding twine.  I had doors. stumps of wood were my chairs, and other make believe furniture he made for me; and I even had an old cook stove that I made mud pies etc on.  Behind the barn grew a weed of some kind that had a velvety texture and it made the best bread, cake or whatever I saw in my imaginative childhood eye to make it!  Mud spread very well on them or between them or whatever!  Dad came to visit me and eat with me!

In the winter time he would take the old Sears Roebuck catalogue and take the stiff pages to make the walls for me a play house, making them so they stood up for rooms etc.  Then I would choose the family out of the pages of the catalogue and he would cut them out.  My daddy could cut the figures out so that they had a white edge all around them perfectly.  He put something on the back to make them stand up.  I always had a play house and an imaginary family.  And he cut me out clothes for them also, so I had different outfits for them all.

I was my daddy's girl!  We used to sit on the porch and dangle and swing our feet and talk about so many things and I would wish I had legs like my daddy with hair on them! My dad always went barefoot in summer as I did.  He taught me to wash my feet sitting on the porch step with a wash pan of water between us and taking a cup full [hand cupped] and pour it over my feet and rub them and never put my feet in the pan.  We talked and talked. He taught me so much.

My whole childhood dream was to grow up and have a husband that loved me and I loved and have a home and children.  I wanted many but not so with your dad.  He came from a large family, I don't know if that was it or he thought too expensive, he never told me and begging did no good. When we were on the farm he said the babies would have to be born after harvest as he was too busy during harvest.  He always said he made Gary, I made Lenney, and God made Kin!

He was so pleased that Gary was a boy.  He always called him "his little man"!  Gary spent so much time with my folks that I swore the next one I would keep for myself.  Selfish!  That was a big mistake that I did not let him go with the folks more than I did.  It was not fair to Lenney.  Then Kin he never got to know my real dad as by that time my dad had the hardening of the arteries. However, Kin had a special relationship with dad of his very own in dad's stage of life. I love to sit and listen to Kin tell some of the things he and my folks talked about and did.  Mom made my dad look so much better than his health really was.

I named you, Gary, after my doll, and that is a story in itself.  My dad's name was Lenneaus McKinley Bottom.  Lenney and Kin, I named you both after my dad.  Each of you has a story as well.

I had to grow up to appreciate my mother as I should.  I look back and she was a great influence on my life as well.  It was she that taught me to love Jesus.  I can still remember as she knelt with me by the bed and taught me to pray. It was in the house where I was born and raised a mile north of the Bucks Grove Church. Upstairs, in the south-east bedroom, which was my bedroom.  The bed at that time had a feather mattress on and sitting in the northwest corner of the room. I could not have been very old. She faithfully took me to church until I was big enough to walk it alone.  Consequently, I have known Jesus all of my life.  It is just like swimming I cannot remember when I learned to swim and I cannot remember when I did not love Jesus!   I have so much I want to tell you. JESUS IS COMING SOON!  I pray I am worthy and I want you to be also!

Never forget God gave you your breath and He can take it away at any time.

BE READY!

I love each one of you so much.  Never forget that.  Mom

Read On!

And it's winter before we know it....

winhous.jpg (156319 bytes)

REFLECTIONS
You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years.

It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate.   And yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went.  I know that I lived them all...

And I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams... But, here it is.. the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise...
How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my babies go? And where did my youth go?

I remember well... seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like...

But, here it is...wife retired and she's really getting gray...she moves slower and I see an older woman now. She's in better shape than me... but, I see the great change...  Not the one I married who was young and vibrant... but, like me, her age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we'd be.

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore...it's mandatory! Cause if I don't on my own free will...I just fall asleep where I sit!

And so, now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things.

But, at least I know, that though the winter has come, and I'm not sure how long it will last...This I know, that when it's over...its over....Yes , I have regrets .There are things I wish I hadn't done ,,,,,things I should have done. But indeed, there are many things I'm happy to have done Its all in a lifetime..

So, if you're not in your winter yet...let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly!

Life goes by quickly So, do what you can today, because you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not!

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life...so, live for good today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember...

"Life is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who came after. Make it a fantastic one."

LIVE IT WELL!!

SOME OF YOU MAY HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED DIRT
ROADS, BUT TO US THAT DID, THIS IS PRETTY NEAT.

I have walked many a mile on a dirt road and one that could turn to mud mighty quick too.  Oh how heavy those feet became as the mud built up and held tight to your overshoe until all of sudden it fell off and you almost lost your balance.  Then when dry, the dirt roads, for me, there were two miles of it to school and two miles home.

 

That was dreaming time.  This little girl went many places and saw many things in my mind's eye as I traveled along the way. There's where I dreamed of having a loving husband and children and don't forget that white picket fence!  Yes, I knew how to day dream and still do! I always told my boys dream but know they are dreams and though they may come true they are never exactly like you dreamed them.  We find bumpy roads along the way but well worth the travel.  I have never regretted a step of those childhood miles. In fact, I feel they have had a positive affect on me for health purposes.  The only time I wanted fewer steps were sometimes in about the last half mile my thunder thighs rubbing together became gladded and then each step was miserable until I got home and mom put corn starch on them.  They were slick then!

 

Then remember those rainy days, were days of no work in the fields. To me it meant find a good book and pull up a chair to the old cook stove and open the oven door and put your feet in the oven. Oh how I did enjoy many a good book that way.  Or days to pop some corn and play games. Remember the popcorn had to be shelled and then the little fuzzy things had to be blown out of them as you took two pie tins and stepped out on the porch and blew as you poured the corn from pan to pan over and over until they were all gone.  Oh so many good memories this brings back to this old lady..........I hope I have tickled your memory!......If not then click on the link below and I am sure Paul Harvey will!....... Addie here

 

Click here: DIRT ROADS

 

http://famguardian.org/Subjects/FamilyIssues/Articles/DirtRoads/DirtRoads.htm

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