Miss Congeniality

Mom and I are watching “Snowmen” while I feed her dinner. “Get over here,” she demands, as I stand by the bed with my plate of food. “Let me see that dish.”

I hold the dish up for her to see. She reaches for it, and I pull it away.

Does Your Mom Remember You?

Mom is coming through the front door with her arms full of boxes of fat red strawberries. The children are jubilant. “They had a sale at Albertsons,” Mom explains.

When we come from New Jersey, she likes to get us all our favorite foods. She also hates to…

Wasting

This week will mark fifteen months since we all moved in together and brought Mom home. It’s been almost five months since I have posted anything. That’s because pretty much nothing different has happened.

When we first began, there was stuff to move and information to be acquired. There…

Love and Memory

If A Tree Falls in the Alzheimer’s Unit and Nobody Remembers, Did it Really Happen?

A Saturday Out

I was reluctant to take an entire Saturday away from home, especially since Claire and Arthur…

Love in the Time of Alzheimer’s

Mom Gets Violent

Mom’s caregiver Samaria is talking to my sister Claire in the hallway outside my room. “Her dementia is getting worse,” she says in her musical Samoan lilt. “She just tried to hit me. She threw her water at me and called…

Teach Your Children Well

In which I learn from my mother who remembers nothing

Mom wakes early on a Sunday morning, saying she needs to use the bathroom. I explain, again, about the fall, the concussion and the catheter; her brittle bones and…

Feeding Mom

The caregiver arrives late-ish on Saturday, so Claire and I tag team the morning routine. I see Claire coming out of Mom’s room and ask, “Should I make Mom breakfast?”

Well, I gave her a banana and she’s just holding it.”

A Slice of Alzheimer’s Pie

Stage 7, I think

I am taking a break from writing essays to sit with Mom. I am enjoying “So I Married An Axe Murderer,” a Mike Myers movie friends have referenced repeatedly over the years. Mom used to get agitated when we watched anything that had…

Hospice Recert

When Colleen came from hospice yesterday to check on Mom for recertification, I was a little worried. Mom’s vitals, as reported weekly by the case nurse, have been looking pretty good to me. What if Mom becomes ineligible for hospice care?

That’s the Disease Talking

No, Wait… It’s Mom

Claire and I have spent the last forty-five minutes giving Mom her meds, brushing her teeth, changing her Depends and chuck pad, strapping special pads to her feet, and turning and adjusting her body to tilt left. We have…