General Update #46

Joyce resumed intermittent napping in her recliner and visiting off and on with Dusty. Her narratives were somewhat disjointed and at points she struggled to piece coherent sentences together or keep tracks of topics straight after initially starting strong about wanting to continue conversation from previous night about her uncle Jimmy. Conversation logged below in "Message(s) from Joyce" section.

1:06 p.m. - Stocker arrived to check on Joyce's comfort level and removed her lunch tray, noting that she had not eaten much. Joyce told Stocker that she would probably need to use the bathroom soon.

1:20 p.m. - Joyce falls asleep while conversing with Dusty.

Message(s) from Joyce:

My uncle Jimmy (James) Rosenfeld was in the Navy, and he went missing in action. Alice, Vernon and the family lived up on the Rathdrum prairie at the time of the notice. Joyce's grandmother (Rosenfeld) came out form Nebraska and bought the house next door to where they lived (don't know why she did that rather than just staying in Nebraska) and lived there for Jimmy to have, even though he was missing in action because she believed that he would come back. That never happened, though. She wanted him to have a place to stay. He was never married so there was no family to carry on for him. Joyce's grandmother really believed that he would come back. She lived in that house for years. Then she eventually sold the place and went back to Nebraska. Joyce doesn't know if her grandma Rosenfeld had sold her home in Nebraska to come out to Rathdrum, Idaho and so then had to buy another home upon her return to Nebraska. 

Jimmy didn't want to have to milk cows, so he would put water on his cereal. He figured if he didn't use the milk they couldn't force him to milk the cow. He must have been quite a guy, just from that one memory about him, it showed he had spunk and whatnot. If Joyce ever met him it was only briefly and Joyce was young enough that she doesn't have any memories of him. Alice told Joyce the cereal story about Jimmy. His two other brothers got stuck milking the cows most likely. Alice was very efficient at milking cows, so maybe she took that job on. She could get right in there and get it done. 

Joyce never learned how to milk cows, though she tried several times. Each time the cow was never cooperative. So, Joyce never really "got stuck" with the job of milking the cow. As cow milking was not her expertise and she didn't ever want to do it in the first place...what did Alice and Vernon give to Joyce for a wedding gift? A big ol' Holstein. Loyal didn't particularly like cows, but he got stuck milking the cow. 

When Joyce was a child, Alice would milk cows. So they sold milk. Sometimes, especially in the winter, they would set 2-gallon metal cans of milk in jars out on the back porch (which was kind of an enclosed area) and take the cream off from it. They'd sell that to a creamery in Coeur d'Alene. 

When Joyce and Loyal lived in Worley in an Indian house, they would sell milk to the Coeur d'Alene creamery. (Joyce's stories about selling to creameries started getting distorted at this point as she would also say "Moscow Creamery" when discussing time spent in Worley). [Subject change to Indian farm] The Indians owned the land that the house sat on. Joyce remembers the Indians would come to the door and ask for money, before the crops got harvested. That was the only time they would really bother them. [Subject change, begins describing Worley farm, then changes to Dora.] There was a barn and they had a few cows there. Grandma Fleener lived in Worley and she was a cow person. [Subject change.] "Joanne was the youngest sibling [of Loyal's] and she..." (Joyce trailed off in a moment of confusion, Dusty asked Joyce who Loyal's youngest sister was and Joyce said she wasn't sure but thought it was Joanne...but that Dusty can review Dora's book to verify.) Dusty asked if Joyce was sure that Loree wasn't Loyal's sister, not Joanne. Conversation topics changed to Dora. Joyce always thought that Dora was amazing. She took a class at UI on how to write books. Joyce thought that always took a lot of courage and fortitude. [Subject change.] At one of the family reunions that happened in the past couple of years they (Jeanette and Glenda) passed out butter wrappers where they had made butter and sold it and they passed out these copies of the wrapping. Joyce stated she has one in the cookbook office at the farm if the family would like to look at it. [Joyce falls asleep then eventually wakes at random, states that she remembers Loree was Loyal's sister, then goes back to sleeping in recliner.]

Current location:

Gritman Medical Center, Room 202.

Current pain level:

Unknown.

Visiting information:

No change from previous post:

Currently only 1 visitor per day for Joyce, no exceptions. Once current visitor departs Joyce's room, no further visits for the rest of the day. No swapping out visitors (example, Dusty cannot remain on hospital grounds while Craig goes to sit with Joyce for an hour and then Dusty returns to room).