Linda, I can't step into your shoes and I won't swamp you with sympathy. You know you are loved and supported here. But I do have a practical suggestion for you, something I only recently was told.
Our local librarian asked people to please spread the word that the local library, which not only lends hard-copy books, and which we have known also lends DVDs, audio tapes and videoa, now increasingly has audio books available ONLINE. These can be accessed via internet. husband & I are still digging, but we'd previously been borrowing audio books and then loading them via the computer (and mp3 files) onto te iPod. Once on the iPod, we can listen to them any time and any where, including in the car which we've now got set up with the iPod playing through the car radio. Very handy for long car trips. Ages ago, husband ordered a disk of mp3 files which included all the old Stan Freberg shows as well as every episode of "The Shadow" that were made. He's since got the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" original broadcast (which in itself is a piece of history).
So just a thought for you on your audio books - check out online, not only your own library but other libraries around the world. A lot of these files are either public domain or out of copyright, and therefore free to obtain. Also, if you can get kt to listen to them with you, perhaps while you both do some sort of craft. It's like recreating the old days of listening around the radio of an evening. There are all sorts of hobbies she could be doing while you listen together - jigsaw puzzles, for example. Or some of te things easy child 2/difficult child 2 has done, craft-wise, in recent years. Knitting chain mail, for example. We're thinking of buying a lace-making kit for her, she's into anything unusual, fiddly, painstaking.
So a couple of thoughts for you, really. Good luck with the bed hunt.
Marg
