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This picture of Pete with our mom and dad, Cecil and Esther, must have been taken about 1952 or soon thereafter when Pete was about 23.
DUE to the circumstances of Jan having a heart attack and the attendant bypass operations, the gut wrenching decision was made that it would be best that Pete live in a group home, a decision which he was decidedly unhappy with - and who can blame him. But he can't live by himself and Jan can't handle that responsibility anymore.
So while Jan was in the hospital, from an almost nonexistent list of choices, I picked a group home for him near my home in Lakewood. So far, we feel the gods smiled on me/us with this choice. The following pictures were taken only about 3 days after the contentious move.
These are the houses across the street. How much better can you get than this neighborhood?
This is the first picture of Pete taken in his new home. He has a fairly large room, private bath and huge closet. As I understand it, this room is supposed to be for 2 guests but so far he has it to himself - dunno what's going to happen in the future. The Saturday following the taking of this picture he had more of his own furniture moved in and pictures hung. I've not been able to visit him since due to a bunch of factors including a cold, which he needs like a moose needs a hat rack. As you can see, evidently all the problems of moving day seem to have been resolved fairly quickly. Funmi (foon-me) is the owner/manager of the home and does most of the work herself. She is a RN, which we thought was an advantage especially considering his pill regimen.
I was so pleased that Funmi dressed him as the whole time I stayed with him at home while Jan was in the hospital, he lived in his hospital gown. So I was very pleasantly surprised at how great he looked dressed. Hospital gowns just don't do much for person.
Pete is holding the 3-years-old-just-last-week daughter Lola of the family. She also has an older brother Wunmi, who is four and goes to preschool - he will be 5 in March and in kindergarten next year. They are both very bright active children and seem perfectly at ease with the many forms of humanity that visit their home. As is the wonderful characteristic of children, they make no judgments - just accept what is, as normal. They usually are much more entertaining to watch than TV and if not more entertaining, at least a good option. The husband of the family, Ariyo, works in Olympia so haven't seen him very much but is a bright, affable guy. He has been nice enough to spend some of his precious evening time just conversing with Pete in his room and keeping Pete on his toes. The Oyetuga family is from Nigeria and has a world of experiences and culture I hope they will share with us as they have time. As they have a computer in the family room, I have approached them about being able to send Pete emails with pictures or even better, have him visit your websites with pictures on them or your Seattle Foto or Kodak online picture postings. I'm not sure of the best way to handle this but I suspect it will be best for you to send me the info so I can assist at this end. I'm anxious for the Oyetugas to know how interested we are in having this medium available to Pete.
Lola's inspecting the poinsettia we brought from the house to try to add a splash of color to the room. As there was a shortage of furniture on which to place it, I thought the unused potty chair as good as anything. I really wanted to lift the lid and put the poinsettia in it but that didn't work out.
As Wunmi, the 4 year old boy wasn't home when the above pictures were taken and after seeing his sister's picture on this webpage, he wanted his picture on it too so I've added this picture of him with 3 year old his sister, Lola. They are a true brother and sister combination. Though he doesn't mind beating up on her, he's really very protective of her and I think he'd die trying to stop someone else doing so.
If anyone wants to drop by to visit Pete, you can get his address and phone number from either Jan or myself. He doesn't have a phone in his room yet but they seem to be happy to bring in a portable phone for him to receive calls. And if you want to take him anything, a baggie of nice washed fruit such as grapes or cleaned and prepared veggies such as carrots or celery would be nice. He chomps on veggies and fruit all of the time and a nice "prepared" batch is always welcome. SMALL gifts of Sugarless candies or sectioned or dried fruits with out added sugar are also great. If you can think of something different, a change would be really nice.
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