Saturday, January 30, 2010

A Christmas Story - Part 2

In spite of the Alzheimer's, Grandma still comes across pretty well - in the short term, at least. Her memory's never been great so the occasional glitch in recall is expected.

Two or three minutes into our conversation, however, the little gaps started to add up and pretty soon they became big enough to drive a truck through.

And she knows the gears are slipping.
And there's definitely anxiety.


So there I was trying to ease her mind, pleasantly distract her, and how would I normally do this?
Why, chit-chat, of course!*
But after about twenty minutes of that, Uncle Bob showed up and things got a little better.

We went out to lunch (T.G.I. Friday's!) and with Bob there to organically fill in the blanks, the previously sputtering conversation - now interspersed between the slurping of soup and chomping of burgers - steadily grew a head of steam and soon began chugging away under it's own power.

I don't think I've ever been more happy to exchange banal detail in my entire life.**

After lunch, Bob went back to work and I drove Grandma back to the Manor,*** where I walked her to her room and kissed her good bye.

It wasn't the last time I'll kiss her good bye, I'm pretty certain of that. But as to the circumstances of our next meeting - who knows?

Both Mom and Grandma have always had this thing about kissing family members on the mouth, which grosses some people out.

I don't think I've never minded less.

*Just try "catching up" sometime with a loved one who has little to no recall. This can make for hours of fun for the whole family!
**And my disdain for social constraint, while still in evidence, has greatly dimished! If it works for the japanese...
**Who come up with these effing names? I mean, "manor" and "estates"? REALLY?

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