Hello I am finally home. I'll get the web sites caught up sometime in the next millenia. My father fell about 6 weeks ago and broke some ribs then three weeks ago he complained that he couldn't move his left side. He had a subdural hemotoma and brain swelling. He survived the surgery, but couldn't go back home again. He is a happy confused, memory about 1963 when we lived in Fruita and Boulder Colorado. But recognizes everyone and knows where we live. He doesn't remember his grandchildren or great grandchildren. Asking him questions only upsets him and he starts tearing up. Found out that mother was orbiting the outer orbital objects, around Charon and heading for deep space. Father had covered for her so well, no one had any idea how bad she was. So my sibling and I had to find an assisted living center for them. all within 10 days of the surgery. Quite fun had to reduce their furniture and living habitat from 1300 sq feet to around 600 sq. feet by the time that father was released from the hospital. Of course we had only a short time period to do in. Sister and her husband live in Chicago and I in Idaho and the parents in Northwest Arkansas, Crawford County.. Had to clean out the house, of their 84 years of living and 62 years of marriage. Found out some interesting things about perserving your family history. below are the woulda, shoulda, couldas that would have been helpful for us. If you have stored your old photgraphs in the albums using the sticky pages with the plastic cover that peals off then covers your photos, get the old ones out of there as quick as possible. The tack used eats the backs of the old photos. All of mothers photo albums, use those pages If you have photos without identifying the people, locations, and dates, you may not be around to identify who the people are in the pictures and where it happened. Part of your history is lost. We could recognize some people and locations, but so many others are now lost to us. We, my sister and I, found lots of mementi of my parents, no idea what they meant to the parents and what story they told. Would have been nice to have had a record of when and where and why. We also found lots of old pottery and glass ware. Not sure when they came into the family and how mother acquired them. We think some of them belonged to our grandmothers. A memory book with a picture of the item and its history would have been very helpful. We don't know how much of it was family heirlooms or stuff mother bought over the years. The same thing for the quilts and needlework we believe that our grandmother made. Also found important documents in the shed, mixed in with chain letters that father collected. They were church marriage license, our baptism records and blessing records to mention only a few. Make sure that those items are in one place. We had to go through each piece of paper to make sure we were throwing important things away. They had the same filing system for the title to their "toys" and deeds. Record the funny things that happen to you while doing the task. We now have new phrases in our family language. Happy confused, Mother's Hair and Mother's head. Father was a happy confused in the hospital. Knew something was wrong, couldn't remember clearly, but was still in a good mood. Mother's hair ------- found out that she collected white and platinum colored wigs, she had a few other colors mixed in, around 300 total. She also collected American Indian jewelery. We went through her collection of jewelery and selected a few pieces that she could take with her to her new home. Closed up the bag with the stuff she wouldn't take, the bag had no wigs in it. When Sister and I went to put the jewelery in the safety deposit box, found two wigs, white of course, stuck in the bag. we laughed till no sound came and tears streamed down our face. One of the wigs now resides in the safety deposit box. Mother's Head, well she had a wighead on which to store a wig. intersesting times. If anyone wants more of the gory details of the process to place parents in assisted livng please write privately. That was a bear to do. most places had a 6 month to 2 year waiting list to people inside. we were guided by Heavenly Father to find the place we did. His hand was very evident. Deborah Byrd