Mom’s life was
so full pre-Alzheimer’s that once when we called to find out where she’d like
to go on Mother’s Day, she already had plans.
(She changed them to be with us.)
Now she didn’t feel comfortable being more than a few steps away from her
bathroom, and even if she wanted to walk out of her “memories” section, the
alarm would go off. This would be her
first Mother’s Day at Aegis, and we wanted to use the beautiful dining room on “the
other side.”
April
15, 2011
Dear
Suzy and Kathy,
I’ve made the reservations for
Mother’s Day, so we can have the table from 11:00 to 1:00—Mom’s mood making it
possible. If those aren’t quite the
hours you want, we could change then.
Today I mentioned that we were going to get the pretty dining room, and
she said, “What are you going to wear?
An evening dress?” I told her
nothing quite that dressy, but I would dress up, and she told me that what I
had one looked good and suitable. It was
good that I added something besides the brown, she said.
I hope that Karl can join us. We have the option between bringing our own
food and getting the dining room free or having them bring the food, in which
case it’s $6.00 a person, according to Carol the “concierge.” (And it turns out that their number really
was disconnected yesterday!)
I also made reservations for that
pretty dining room for Easter—12:00 start—in case it works out that we could
bring David and Karl. Mom said today
that she’d just fallen in love with Karl.
She still carries her card from Jonathan around too. Great grandsons! I’d say great family altogether and all
together, starting with Mom and Kathy!
Mom was much more like her “real”
self today. When I came in she and
Kristine were sitting side by side talking, and I noticed that Mom’s way of
talking to her was kind of like a kindly counselor. She may feel that she’s back at the
Children’s Shelter! Mom had told one of
the aids that I was taking her out for lunch, so I offered to do that, but she
didn’t take me up on it. She did want me
to go back to the sandwich store and bring back food, so I did. Adele, Mom, and I ate it along with the
latest batch of cookies I made, but Kristine declined (not wanting to get what
I have). Dori, a pretty white-haired
woman walked in and lay down on Mom’s bed, and Mom was very nice about it, but
Adele wanted the woman to get her feet off the cover, and Mom did suggest that
we remove the Afghan because Dori was wearing shoes. I put the latest pictures in the Visitors
Book Kathy got for her, and Mom commented again on Karl. Mom started to read from the wonderful book Contrary to Popular Belief, and then
Olga came and got people for lunch. Mom
declined, and she also turned down my suggestion that we go outside. She said, “You don’t know how good it feels
to have the place to myself.” But she said
she didn’t want to be seen reading for too long “because then they’ll think,
‘She gets paid for THAT?’”
She ate very, very well—a sandwich I
brought her plus all the lunch they brought into her room except for the slaw
salad.
When I was time for me to leave, I
told her I’d be back Saturday and was bringing a friend on Tuesday. She said, “I’m not sure I work on
Saturday…Well, I don’t go home, anyway.”
And then it looked as if she were trying to get things straight about
her job and about her home.
But she was certainly in good
spirits. I hope there won’t soon be a
swing back to the paranoia.
Love,
Tina
PS Mylo said that one of mom’s friends
(Nan? Andree or Sihua?) came by with
flowers, and he had to let her know that Mom wasn’t in great shape
yesterday. I’m not sure what they did
with the flowers.
No comments:
Post a Comment