Day One- Move to Sunrise

1/13/2014

We arrived at Sunrise around 10am. Cari the direction of the memory care "Reminiscence"  area as Sunrise refers to it was waiting for us in the lobby. We let Cari lead the discussion as well as the tour. Mom was very relaxed, little to no anxiety. We sat in the dining area for a few minutes and had a coo of coffee and then headed to show mom her new room. Cari again to the lead.... We all sat together in the room making sure to point out all of mom's things that she loves so much. We sat with her in her room for about 20 minutes. The Cari suggested that we go back to the common area with her for a little while. We left her room and walked to the TV area and sat in a rocking chair for a few minutes. Then asked mom to take us to her room along her to lead us this time. She knew the direction to head which was a nice surprise. Carri asked us to leave at this time allowing mom to be here by herself, but to only go downstairs and wait for her call. We sat in the lobby for almost an hour before deciding to go back up stairs on our own. Mom was sitting at the dining room table sitting with a few other ladies getting ready to eat lunch. Terri had come to help mom transition and also brought mom a hamburger, so she was eating that with Terri. At this point mom was comfortable and occupied, so we went ahead and left for the day. I called around 4pm to see how she was doing. Bridget said that was carrying her baby around and helping pass out juice to all the residents. Shawn and I went back up to the facility around 7pm to get mom ready for bed and to tuck her in, just like I have done for the past year. When we pulled into the parking lot we could see that her apt light was on and so was her suite mates. We rushed upstairs and went into her room and found that her bed was empty. I sent Shawn back to the Nurses station to see if maybe mom was down there. While he was gone I began to hear voices coming from her suite mates room. I called out "mom" and she quickly replied "yes". She came out of Vida's room and just said Hi....  I said what are you doing, you are suppose to be in bed. She said "I was working". Had to laugh.. That thought has not changed yet.
I put her back in bed and laid with her for a little while talking about her day. She was so relaxed! I kissed her goodnight and told her that I would see her in the morning. She said "K- night".
This day could not have gone any better....... My fingers are crossed that she continues to enjoy he time there and that this was the correct decision.