2026 Life Logs, Day 124: Sisters, Sisters
Date: Monday, May 4, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 58, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This was one of those days when the Irving Berlin song, “Sisters, Sisters” made popular in the movie White Christmas, kept reeling though my mind. This was day four of having to spend all of my energy dealing with my sister Patsy’s health issues. In the song, the words say, “Lord help the mister, that comes between me and my sister.” Take out the word ‘mister’ and put in ‘incompetent people’ and you have the song I was singing today. Finally, yesterday, the senior living facility where she lives started giving her the insulin she needs. But today I got a text from her paid companion saying that they waited until Patsy was seated for lunch and then came in and got her and took her to the med tech station to inject the insulin. The med tech doing this then turned to Patsy’s companion, who has not one ounce of medical training, and asked her where she should give the injection. Oh, my. And I still have not heard back from the administrative staff in response to my very long email of yesterday. My nephew who lives near enough to Patsy to help out when needed was on a flight to Miami this afternoon, and in flight, he was researching to whom in North Carolina you report this kind of negligence. It is the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that regulates assisted living/nursing home facilities. But Patsy lives in a senior living community that offers Independent Senior Living, Senior Assisted Living, and a Memory Care program. Now I have to switch to lawyer mode to figure out who does regulate this place. In the meantime, I have this one photo of me with my two older sisters that keeps me grounded. My oldest sister was born in 1928 and died in 2005, my sister Patsy was born in 1933, and then I came along 14 years later in 1947. I was never friends with my sisters because of the age difference, but family is family. Patsy’s husband died in 2019, her oldest daughter died in 2022, and her youngest daughter lives in an assisted-living memory care facility in Ohio. She suffers from post cortical atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s. And our brothers died long ago. Patsy and I are what is left of my immediate family. So, I will battle on because we are family.
