The Scrapping Garden

As many of you know, my mom lives with me and suffers from advanced dementia. Many times I just have to laugh, or I would be doing a lot of crying.

She has given up many of the things she did all her life, like reading the paper and doing the crossword each day. She even did the weekly crossword in the NY Times. She was an avid reader and loved to sew. She favored political television, as well as biographical and historical shows.

Even now, she keep the tv on, but is a bit "confused" as to the content. She was telling me there's "a woman running for president", and she thinks that woman will win because she "has a brother or something who is in politics!"

Mom has been exhibiting some BIZARRE eating habits lately. She is not oriented to the time of day, and often enters the kitchen several times a day, announcing, "Good Morning". Then she looks for a cup of hot coffee. Of course, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, there is NO hot coffee. She had been in a routine of eating PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY sandwiches .. two or three a day! Now, she has been "raiding" the fridge, opening jars of things like pickle relish, horseradish, ranch dressing, and WHATEVER, and eating with a spoon right out of the jar. Now, not only is this DISGUSTING to me, but she uses a clean spoon each time, and places empty jars back in the fridge! She no longer makes sandwiches, but eats the peanut butter right out of the jar, too. Because she is disoriented to time, she eats everything all at once. I go shopping, buy her a dozen yogurts or so, and by the next day she has eaten them all! It sort of reminds me of going on vacation; you can leave food for a cat for a few days and there is no problem, but leave it for a dog and he eats it all, THEN vomits it all, before you return .... lol.

My solution for this was to buy a new refrigerator. My son and I went shopping last weekend, and I purchased a smaller one for our garage. He will pick it up later this week. My plan is to set it right outside of our kitchen, which is attached to the garage. So it will be pretty convenient for us, and I will STOCK our old one, in the kitchen, with a day's supply of food for mom.

She thinks the snow will be "flying" any day now, but has decided she will not drive this winter! (She hasn't driven for about 10 years). She gets our names confused, and often comments that she has not seen "so and so" for quite a while ... when actually that person may have just left a few hours before. She asks several times a day where my son Michael works and what he does. Each morning when I check on her, give her her pills, and say goodbye, she says, "oh, you have to work today? This is Sunday isn't it?"

All in all, I am still able to keep her in my home. However, I have begun the search for an assisted living facility where she may be safer and I would not have to worry so much. I am sorry to say, the day will come when she will need more than I am able to provide for her.

Until that time, I will just continue to "greet" her with "good morning", each night before I go to bed!

Now, for you, for being so kind to take the time to read about MY life, I am giving YOU a FREEBIE. You can DOWNLOAD HERE. Enjoy! (sorry,link has expired)