Florence Patton *farm wife, mother of five*

My folks had 4 boys and 4 girls...The oldest is this sweet heart featured here today, the youngest is the author, her "baby brother" she likes to introduce me as to the residents of Mulberry Lutheran assisted living center in Mulberry Indiana. I think I know why I am the 'baby brother' as she was 22 when I was born and soon made me an uncle 5 times with 5 great sons Bill, Ed, Denny Jim and Tom....Meet my oldest sibling but surely not ready to even think about calling it quits, Florence Lahrman Patton, one great mom to five sons and like the hat says in the shadow box in the hall outside her room, "This is no ordinary Farm Wife you are dealing with".....

They farmed about 3 miles from us if you took the road but only a mile if you went through the woods which we kids usually did to get into trouble every chance we got.
It was an interesting trip, the short cut, as we had a small stream running through our farm that you jumped across and then a maybe 3 acre swampy shallow ponded area about half way in the woods, and then an area of large oak, maple and ash trees on their farm before dumping out into the quarter mile lane headed to their barn.

They had a steep hillside area caused by the glacier melt which formed wildcat creek eons ago but afforded us the greatest wildest sled rides you would ever want if you could avoid the gully's, the trees, and with high speed snow the fence along the road.

Florence is new at the Mulberry home as she spent a few years at Rose Walk Home where she had a great room and her own car for a while and if a bus was going anywhere this lady was on it....now she needs a little more help and her family wisely chose the best place for that, mainly because her brother Joe lives very close and sure there will not be many days that he does not stick his head in the door and make sure his sis is OK.....

All her other sibs are in Florida this week for the annual wine tasting Sarasota event and also a memorial tree planting this afternnon on the beach (where they all spent many spring breaks), for my sister Pegs husband Charles Ritchie who passed this winter... So the not so great at visiting baby brother, had to be activated, and told to get up there and check on her by my sister Peg.

So yesterday I did that as requested, and I am so glad to report to them and to you that I may have elevated my standing with my sis from maybe the basement to the roof top in one single day. Maybe not but I did score some points and I had so much fun doing it that it will be hard to not try and keep my image maintained in the future.
Joe will eventually regain the #1 spot living that close...Larry probably #2 because he is the oldest and most considerate and concerned bro you could ever want. But I could maybe take advantage of sliding into the 3rd spot ahead of my sis Peg solely because she lives in Anderson and won't have the opportunity to visit that often.
But if I end up in the basement again which I could I admit, as farming lies ahead for a few weeks and I will have the pleasure of cultivation of corn, beans, and Sweet Pea, preferably in reverse order.

My visit went so well. I arrived just afer noon and she was so glad to see her brother. She did get a really big smile, I guess absense does truly make the heart grow fonder, not a good excuse but maybe a fact of life. She told me she had went to lunch and not stayed in her room for lunch that day as she said she had the day before. I looked around her room and noticed she was a little short on shoes, and knowing most gals can not have too many shoes I ask her if maybe she had a couple pairs of brand new shoes if she would be more willing to put them on and feel better about making those meal time appointments. She smiled and said you know that is a good idea. I laughed and said well good deal lets take a look at your shoe size which she knew and I said JC Penny's here I come. I will be back before dinner and we will be doing that together in the cafeteria...She said, "oh good that will be so much fun"....I got to the store and the gentlemen and ladies after being told what I was up to all got into the act, it was slow in the shoe department, so we all got into the effort... I left there with 10 pairs and a promise to take them all back if need be and they were all on sale, how could I lose....

Well as a clincher for the number 1 slot that day in my sister life I had noticed a shadow box with shelves outside each room and hers was empty..I went by the house on my way back and got some "stuff", pictures, a chick fil a cow, a bed bug, a hat that my sweetie had owned that said "this is no ordinary farm wife you are dealing with" and a toy tractor a picture of Dayton school and her parents and others of her siblings...all 8 of us in the days gone by...

Anyway with all that I was confident I'd be number 1 for at least a week till the competition returns from spring break with their families on the beach....

I got there early and she was already setting in the cafeteria waiting on me. I put the sacks of stuff in her room and joined her. She said this is so much fun, I sure like having company. Maybe since your a pretty big guy you could just take me home with you. I said no but I will come see you and after we eat we have shoes to try on. She said well maybe you can stay all night I have an extra bed...She has it pretty much together except for she does not remember her parents dying and ask about how they are...Then wanted to know who died first...other than that she has it pretty well together and should not be in that locked down area and hopefully will be evaluated soon and into an area where friends can better be made with other residents.

We sat at the table for quite some time because of our early arrival. Another woman in a picture at the right showed up and looked at us. I said, "would you like to set with us"? She said, "well if I set anywhere its gonna be right on your lap".. I absolutely became a little embarrassed but laughed like I have not laughed maybe in months as did the whole cafeteria. My sis then turned around and told Janice was her name, "I think not if anyone is going to set on his lap it will be me"......so Janice smiled and went to her normally assigned table next to us. I could not resist having my picture taken with her when my daughter Sharla and son in law Jeffrey arrived with my camera that I had went off without as per my request...When a nice looking woman offers to set on your lap and then another one says no way its gonna be me if anyone, will the ego kind of hits the top of the scale and maybe even over the top...Janice is married to a "big guy" some of the nurses advised me so we will just be friends passing in the halls or smiling in the cafeteria...but I have learned that as early as last Christmas, that nursing homes do offer potential for relationships. Yesterday visit to see my Sis and others reinforced that discovery.

One funny encounter in the hall way with a gentleman walking the halls, was his asking, "are you going to use all of those"? pointing to the floor behind me. I turned and looked at the bare tile behind me and said, "no there all yours if you want them", he said, "ok thanks"...

It was a good day she tried on all 10 pairs of shoes and kept telling me this was crazy that she did not need these shoes but I finally talked her into two pair but there was a third pair that was kind of catching her eye and I said, "I think you need a pair for all three meals each day...She finally agreed and thus the pic at the right showing her holding two and wearing one...she said, "now if I can just remember I got all of these shoes"...I put them in a drawer under her TV and left the drawer open, she should be good to go...

To her family that will be seeing her often I want to say change anything you want in her shadow box but don't you mess with my sister new shoes...It was my great pleasure to see her this happy that day....