A visit with Dad

We got up,  had the hotel breakfast and went for a walk along the beach.   The beaches were wide, with white sand.  They were smoothed with sand grooming machines.   There were concessions to rent umbrellas and lounges.   We came upon the surfing area.  There were life guards in many places.  

We got over to Irv's in Boynton Beach about 11 as planned.   Irv and Elaine's house is in a gated development and there was a bit of an issue getting in, but it all worked out.  His caregiver Barbara was there ( his other helper is Dee ) and Elaine was in bed.  We went out to a deli called Toojays.  I used my maps app, but actually Irv was perfectly capable of directing us all the way there. Neil asked him what he did during the war, because he was not really clear on that.  Neil's impression had been that he was a guard on an air force base.  It turned out that he was an air traffic controller and that he had been stationed all over the place in the states including Florida and North Dakota and New York, and that he went to England towards the end of the war and was stationed there and then in Scotland, and that he visited France before he came home.  He also said that he tried to moonlight as an air traffic controller later while he was teaching, but they wouldn't hire him.

On Worth Ave

Palm Beach

Irv really just wanted to get out of the house.  Elaine was sleeping about 20 hours a day and he never knew whether she would even get out of bed to eat.  He said that they didn't know anyone anymore....all the neighbors they knew had either died or moved.  He wanted to drive up to Palm Beach and have us go for a walk down Worth Avenue while he sat and looked at the ocean from the car, which is what we did.   The drive up passed mansion after mansion.  We had driven around there when we visited in 2001, but hadn't walked around Worth Avenue at all.  It was super posh Beverly Hills/ Rodeo Drive type shopping.  The only store we actually went into was Starbucks, for an afternoon coffee.

Wen we got back we had another issue with the gate, but Barbara told us if we just edged up to it very closely, it would open even without the code and it did. It turned out that Elaine had fallen that afternoon and the paramedics came.   There was nothing new wrong, she is just getting weaker and weaker.  Barbara made dinner for us and Neil and Irv looked at the ipad and one of those digital picture frames and Neil got some things working for Irv on both those devices.   Neil was perplexed as to where Irv had gotten some of the photos, but we assumed that Howard got them for him.  

Barbara and Irv got hold of Elaine's doctor who said that Irv should bring Elaine into the hospital the following morning if he was concerned.  Barbara said that Irv was having a hard time accepting the fact that there was nothing anyone could really do for Elaine.  We left after dinner and went back to the hotel. After a long walk up the main drag, we went to bed and slept well.

At Irv's House