Angela Lansbury

I have never been the biggest Angela Lansbury fan, but she had a great run. I wish there had been autotune when she did her vocals for Beauty and the Beast. But her performance as Mrs. Johnny Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate was effing amazing. And I once had a revelation while speaking with a friend on the phone with the tv on mute that they used completely different lenses on Angela Lansbury when shooting Murder She Wrote than they used on all of the other actors. Her shots were foggy and sweet and everyone else's were crisp. Anyhoo...

Ten years ago, while working in Mantova, I noticed that the local tv station played multiple episodes of Murder She Wrote in the middle of the day. After work one night I asked two young Mantovani girls what the deal was with this show. When they finally understood what I was referring to, they in unison spoke-sang "OH! YESSSSica!" and then went off to chat. Clearly there was some childhood association there but I never learned what it was.

Good run, Yessica! In other news, I visited my mom after work yesterday, and she was so cozy that she immediately fell asleep. On one hand I am happy that she's happy in that moment, but on the other hand I sometimes wonder why I go? Of course last night I missed a call telling me that she was really hard to get to sleep, and that she wanted them to call the police.

And my sister found this note on Sunday. The blanks are where she wrote her name. I wish there were something I could do but then I'd have to do it. I can't live my life parallel to hers so that we both suffer. At this past week's Alz caregiver support group the facilitator asked how I was doing now that we were transitioning to the memory care folks taking care of her rather than us. I said "Yeahno. That's not really how we do it in my family. I'm there four days a week." On the upside, when I told my middle sister about how I'd missed a call from memory care about mom's behavior, she said that she took it as a good sign that the situation resolved without my needing to deal with it. I almost couldn't believe that level of support in a text from her. Wow.

Anyway when I visit mom and she's sleepy I've gotten into this habit of watching Shark Tank on demand while she sleeps. In that moment, as I listen to her gentle snoring, we're *both* cozy.