I'm popping back in here to bring up something that just come up here. The roof on my mom's house is being redone today. Mom has had a hard time dealing with this roof stuff. She forgets, she doesn't remember our recent conversations, or at most bits and pieces, and having people here working and the loud noises with the guys on the roof, let's just say it has been a difficult day. She has locked herself in the back room for a couple of hours this morning, spoken bad at me, etc. She doesn't understand I had to make the decision to get this work done or else we wouldn't only have a collapsed garage roof, we would have ended up with a collapsed house roof, especially if we get snow this year. So, I just have to be firm and have the work done in spite of her objections.
Anyhow, the crew started at 7am today. The work crew is made up of Mexicans. I went out a while ago to check on things, and one of them came up to me and said, "El BaƱo." I understand he needed to use our bathroom. As much as I did not want to say no, I have to because I cannot have any strangers coming into the house as it upsets mom too much. I don't even have friends over, because she just can't handle having people in her space because her mind goes back and forth between the present day and sometimes the 1940s or 50s. Of course I am going to prioritize her wellbeing above all. So, I tried to explain why I was telling him no. I speak Spanish well, but not as good I used to be. There are words I don't know, like the word "dementia." I explained in Spanish that mom is crazy (mi madre esta loca) and that if he came into the house, it would upset her. He was not understanding and he told me one minute. I waited and he came back and he proceeded to come into the house. So I had to stop him and try to explain again. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom for number one or number two. He said number one, so I went to the back part of the property where there are a lot of trees and told him he could use the bathroom in the woods. He said thank you, but went back to word. I then noticed he gave me a dirty stare when I went back out later on. I still have the sign of the person I voted for in my yard, so he probably thinks I am ready to deport him.
The morale of the story is when you work at someone's house, don't be afraid to go into the woods to do number 1 or number 2.
There is the truth.
Then there is the right thing to say.