Flashback - Wild ride at Walmart

My mother likes to get out - like we all do. Because of her mobility problems we seek out places that have motorized scooters so she can putter along and see what's going on in the world. Walmart is one place that we can generally get a scooter. Off we go to get groceries and Ma wanting to get some Christmas cards (although she had never sent the ones from the previous year). Each scooter works differently so it is difficult even for me to figure out exactly how it works let alone a person with some cognitive deficiencies.

Things start out OK with her following me up and down the grocery aisles. Then I look back and she's not there. I circle around the next aisle and up to the other end to look for her. Nowhere in sight. Like a mother who realizes her child is missing I quickly go to the head of the next aisle and look down to see her crashing into a display (fortunately nothing breakable). I leave my cart and run to where she is. Since she had not let loose of the hand grip (aka throttle) she was still moving forward. A man reached her before I could and grabbed her hand off the grip before she pushed the display completely over. When I got there an "mentioned" to her that she had run into the display she didn't even acknowledge that anything had happened.

I say, OK Ma, let's go back up here where I left my cart and go back to the aisles I missed. She starts following me. Seeing a family with several small children ahead of me I wanted to make sure she was right behind me. The next thing I know I see her out of the corner of my eye getting into the left hand side of the aisle instead of staying behind me. She is going full speed ahead. I had to jump out in front of the kids to keep them from being run over by Ma! I kept telling her to slow down but she was on auto pilot and I had to AGAIN remove her hands for the throttle.

By this point I was ready to leave Walmart! I had just another couple of things I really needed to get so I took her out into the center aisle and told her to stay right there, I was just going to run get 2 more things and then we would be ready to go. She said OK. I went as fast as I could,grabbed the couple of items and headed for where I had left her. You KNOW she was not there. I looked in all directions and saw no sign of my mother in her purple coat.

I didn't really know which direction to go and in parent mode again I just picked a direction and hit the floor running. I left my cart to make it easier. I passed an older employee and asked if he had seen an elderly lady in a purple coat go by on a scooter. He said yes-she went that way - pointing to the other side of the store.

When I finally caught up with her she was circling the toy aisles at break neck speed. Mind you, it is Christmas time and the aisles are full of kids! I don't know how many times I had to excuse her,apologize that she was in the way of the kids trying to look at the toys and keep her from hitting people and merchandise.

I was tempted to go to the hardware department and purchase some rope to tie to the scooter to keep her with me. I think I would have had better luck getting a 2 year old to stay with me than she did that day.

When I declared our Walmart time over and that we were heading to the check out she remembered the Christmas cards she wanted. Off to the boxed card aisle we go for AT LEAST an hour of me handing her every darn box of card they had and having her look it over , open it up unless it was sealed, me trying to explain that the outside of the box showed what it said inside and there was no need to open the boxes and get the cards falling out of the boxes etc. She couldn't be specific on what kind of cards she wanted. I asked - religious? She didn't know. How about something with Santa? No, she didn't want that (until a few minutes later when she decided to look at it anyhow). When all was said and done she must have had 25 boxes of cards in the basket that she couldn't decide from. I basically just picked 2 boxes and told her I thought those were the very best that Walmart had to offer and that I was sure everyone would like the cards. They are still in the drawer a year an a half later.

That was the last time I took her to Walmart!