I just got a phone call from mom’s friend from her Church in Florida. She was calling to let me know that she’d been called by someone named Nancy who claimed to be from the Patient Accounting Department at Halifax Hospital.

Apparently Nancy thought that she was calling mom. Mom’s friend explained that she’d been discharged to Woodland Terrace over a week ago, which was news to Nancy. And then, comically, Nancy told my friend that because of HIPAA regulations she could no longer discuss anything about mom with her.

I said that I couldn’t imagine why they’d call her instead of me, and she said that they had her mobile phone number and someone must have logged that as mom’s number by mistake. I told her that any time anyone calls about mom — especially from Halifax — she should tell them to call me. But she said that Nancy told her that there was no contact information for mom at all, no relatives listed, nobody.

Mom’s friend said that it was ironic that she heard from Halifax today because she had just been to visit mom at Woodland Terrace this morning. She said that when she got there, mom was in a wheelchair in front of a nurses station quietly crying to herself. She thinks that mom can wheel herself around the facility on her own now, which is sort of an improvement. And she said that she saw mom “vertical” for the first time in a long, long time.

I asked her what that meant, and she said that when mom saw her, she pulled herself up to a standing position for a few seconds.

She said that the main reason she was calling was to ask me whether I thought it would be a good idea for her to being mom’s cat to visit her Friday night. The nurses gave her their approval to do that, but she wanted to ask my opinion. I said that I have no idea whether that would be good or bad. It could be really good or it could be awful; I just don’t know.

Mom’s friend said that mom seems “300%” better at Woodland Terrace than she did at any point while at Halifax. She’s not “doped up” and, “she knows who I am.” But, she said, she still won’t “verbalize” at all. She asked mom why she won’t talk to anyone, why she just cries all the time, but mom refuses to respond. It was very depressing to hear that all the nurses there seem to think that mom has always been this way, that she’s not going to improve, and that the crying and whimpering is simply her “normal” now.

She asked me about mom’s cat again and I repeated that I just didn’t know. “Nobody knows,” is what I said, I think.

Mom’s friend said she’d visit her again tomorrow, and asked if I wanted Nancy’s phone number. I said that I certainly did, and she told me it was (386) 425-1136. I told her that I’d call Nancy tomorrow to see if I could learn anything.

And then mom’s friend noted that mom didn’t have her eyeglasses. Mom can hardly see at all without them; she certainly can’t read to save her life without her glasses. She assumed they were lost at some point at Grace Manor, at Coastal Rehab, or in the ER, ICU, or room she was in at Halifax. She said that at one point today while she was there, mom reached over, removed her sunglasses, and put them on herself.

So, yeah, it sounds to me like she’s desperate to get her glasses.

Mom’s friend said she knew mom got the prescription filled at Wal-Mart last year, so maybe I can get them to issue another pair if nobody can find hers. I told her about my brother-in-law taking all her stuff there last week, and she said there was a box in the closet she hadn’t checked. So she’s going to visit again tomorrow to see if they’re in there.

She did say that all the photographs and stuffed animals from my sister, etc. were displayed around her room, so that was nice to hear. She said she’d ask someone at Grace Manor about mom’s eyeglasses, too.