When we arrived with a box full of take-out Chinese food that we'd ordered a whole three hours earlier because it turns out everyone in Massachusetts eats Chinese food on New Year's Eve ... my sister, Janet, and her husband, Bob, had already arrived and were sitting with my father. We wheeled Dad in to a common room for dinner ...
And while Janet gave my father a manicure ...
The girls were by his side, making bracelets for everyone.
We played games, and my brother-in-law taught Elizabeth how to play cards...
And after she lost three straight hands, someone joked it was a good thing she was playing for coins and not for clothes.
There was a talent show, put on by the children, which included Henry singing, "Hallelula!"
Janet had brought my father a grooming kit for Christmas, so she set about trimming his sideburns, eyebrows, neck and ears...
While Carolyn soaked his feet for a pedicure.
After we'd primped and pampered him for an hour, we turned my father around in his wheelchair so everyone could see the finished product.
Charlie sized him up and said, "Walter, you look GREAT as a redhead!"
After the shocked - confused - worried expression left my father's face ... we watched him laugh like he'd never laughed before.
