Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Well my life goes on in the Dementia lane, I'm still visiting Alma, as I mentioned in my last blog. I'm noticing that she is still reading, but she finding writing her name now a little more challenging. Our painting class was more of the same, which was painting on tile dropping alcohol on the work holding the tile sideways thereby letting the colours mix into an abstract design.. Actually our first bit that we did last week looked great to me, but when I showed it to Alma to see how it looked with spray (a kind of shiny wax) on it, she said "I did that, well I must have been drunk" How hilarious, I laughed so much...she didn't find it funny in fact she was serious.
Anyway, our next attempt was beautiful, I thought..but Alma continues to try and make sense of it, by trying to move the tile around to see if she can see a figure or something that is appealing. I said ' think that looks a little like a flying goose in the corner, she said "could be a flying anything" ...Well abstract painting is not for everyone, and it certainly isn't for Alma. But, what was for Alma was and still is looking out at the scenery from the window...while we were looking we noticed a beautiful carnation flower in a vase on the window sill..next to it was a tiny little bag with some polished stones. I took them out to show Alma, and she said, hmmm let me see that. So I passed the little bag to her and before I knew it she put a couple of the stones in her mouth.
Alma, I said, take those stones out of your mouth..you will break your teeth if you bite on them, She said "no I do not bite hard candies, I just suck on them"//Well it took some time to get her to realize they were really not hard candy..she tried to convince me that they were, by saying it is just hard sugar candy dear...well life got a little bit hairy there, thankfully I managed to get them away from her, although when I left I noticed they were not on the window sill..Hopefully she didn't secret them in her pocket..if she did, I'm sure she will forget they are there..
It is such a terrible and sad thing to see this disease among so many here at the residence that I live in as each month one sees how much each of the ones I know have gone down in mind and body. Not to mention how sad it is even among those who were o.k. but in getting old are losing physical abilities. Saturday one of the really "up" residents who always had a smile and enjoyed her outdoor as well as indoor activities, Collette; one who had all her marbles but suffered from Emphesema but still was able to go out,as well as enjoy the activities inside had died at 75 years old.. The family had a kind of wake right in our recreation room..it was RIP Collette,.
Our good old table mate when Mac was still living, Alice, is now also no longer with us. I found out she had died 3 weeks ago, both her son and daughter lived out west and in the time (over 3 years now) they have never visited, Although I cried when I found out this sad news, I know she really wanted to go...her life was just one big misery.
My friend Hazel (age 91) and myself were talking abut Alice, and how Alice really wanted to die ..and so it was in a way a blessing...though I really couldn't stop crying for a bit there. When a lady came and sat across from us...by this time we were sitting in the big area in the lobby...this lady almost convinced us she was living here in a hotel kind of way, here about 3 weeks then back to Montreal to her other home. Her husband was working and they took breaks and now she was in a warm place, a change for her and husband, with some items from her home in her rental apartment here. I was just trying to figure out if she was thinking she was in a hotel or just what, when Jackie (on duty ) came over quickly, breathed a big sigh of relief when she saw the lady.. Then we kind of realized o.k. all this talk by her was fabricated...she was an INMATE. Had a bracelet and could not go in and out without a companion. And so it goes...getting old is as they say, for sure not for sissies.
Tuesday 21 March 2017
Wednesday 15 March 2017
Snow Day, March 15 2017
We, my two daughters and a friend and myself, have been away in Montego Bay, Jamaica, had a wonderful time. Now we are back, and I'm back visiting and helping my friend's mom., Alma Alma has Alzheimer's although it is advanced enough that she has to be in a residence with others with that dread disease..she can take part in an Art program. This has been great therapy for her and also for me. The various art activities, are fun, and although she never wants to participate somehow I always manage to draw her in, and in the end she usually is quite happy about her work, and although she compliments whatever project she has done, she always wonders who made it.. When I say Alma you did that painting, drawing, or art object, she always answers, "Well no dear, that was not done by me". I'd finally convince her that it was certainly her work, and it is lovely. "Oh my, she said,I did that well I don't remember"....I guess in the end she forgets that she did all those things, but while doing it, life is fine.
And so it goes, I'm still involved with the Alzheimer's Disease in a different way. But it is somehow a way of keeping Mac and his illness in my life...I get a satisfaction out of using the skills I learned over the eight years that we were involved in that awful disease. This way when I think, as I aften do of Mac, it was two years on March 10 the anniversary of his death, I dedicate my work and thoughts to him. Although Alma does not have the same affiliation for me as Mac did, she seems to really like me and we do have a lovely time together.
In my last blog I mentioned I have a new man in my life. Strangely enough we met in Church, I won't mention his name, but he came to church just after his wife a died. He wanted to be quietly in a corner and quite by accident he sat in the seat where I would put Mac as Mac not being church goer wanted to be well out of the way. I had brought Mac there so that he would be in the last row and well away in a kind of corner. This man's wife had died, and I guess he thought going back to his old church might help him cope with his grief. So there we were sitting together in the last pew...I noticed like myself he was not too familiar with the set up. In fact he would look in the prayer book when we sang hymns and in the hymn book when we were doing the prayers, I ended up helping him in the books, and he ended up helping me, by driving me home.
He has become the volunteer for the volunteer,(ME) He drives me every week to be with Alma and picks me up after the session. He comes in at times to join us for a cup of tea and cookies, but like many people this is not something he would do on a regular basis. To be with Alzheimer's patients takes some getting used to...especially when many of these patients are there with outspoken and various strange ways.. There is one who often says she will kill a person, and of course this is unpleasant, luckily Alma is quiet and unassuming but at times she does have to be on pills to help to quiet her down.- how this might happen is that the patient becomes disorientated and frustrated.
So although life is not in the same lane as with Mac,it is a part of my life that I can't forget, and so I'm going to be blogging about Alma..and hopefully this will help others who have the disease
We, my two daughters and a friend and myself, have been away in Montego Bay, Jamaica, had a wonderful time. Now we are back, and I'm back visiting and helping my friend's mom., Alma Alma has Alzheimer's although it is advanced enough that she has to be in a residence with others with that dread disease..she can take part in an Art program. This has been great therapy for her and also for me. The various art activities, are fun, and although she never wants to participate somehow I always manage to draw her in, and in the end she usually is quite happy about her work, and although she compliments whatever project she has done, she always wonders who made it.. When I say Alma you did that painting, drawing, or art object, she always answers, "Well no dear, that was not done by me". I'd finally convince her that it was certainly her work, and it is lovely. "Oh my, she said,I did that well I don't remember"....I guess in the end she forgets that she did all those things, but while doing it, life is fine.
And so it goes, I'm still involved with the Alzheimer's Disease in a different way. But it is somehow a way of keeping Mac and his illness in my life...I get a satisfaction out of using the skills I learned over the eight years that we were involved in that awful disease. This way when I think, as I aften do of Mac, it was two years on March 10 the anniversary of his death, I dedicate my work and thoughts to him. Although Alma does not have the same affiliation for me as Mac did, she seems to really like me and we do have a lovely time together.
In my last blog I mentioned I have a new man in my life. Strangely enough we met in Church, I won't mention his name, but he came to church just after his wife a died. He wanted to be quietly in a corner and quite by accident he sat in the seat where I would put Mac as Mac not being church goer wanted to be well out of the way. I had brought Mac there so that he would be in the last row and well away in a kind of corner. This man's wife had died, and I guess he thought going back to his old church might help him cope with his grief. So there we were sitting together in the last pew...I noticed like myself he was not too familiar with the set up. In fact he would look in the prayer book when we sang hymns and in the hymn book when we were doing the prayers, I ended up helping him in the books, and he ended up helping me, by driving me home.
He has become the volunteer for the volunteer,(ME) He drives me every week to be with Alma and picks me up after the session. He comes in at times to join us for a cup of tea and cookies, but like many people this is not something he would do on a regular basis. To be with Alzheimer's patients takes some getting used to...especially when many of these patients are there with outspoken and various strange ways.. There is one who often says she will kill a person, and of course this is unpleasant, luckily Alma is quiet and unassuming but at times she does have to be on pills to help to quiet her down.- how this might happen is that the patient becomes disorientated and frustrated.
So although life is not in the same lane as with Mac,it is a part of my life that I can't forget, and so I'm going to be blogging about Alma..and hopefully this will help others who have the disease
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