Christmas "smile"

Helping Mom get a few Christmas cards addressed then she shooed me out of the room so I couldn't see what she was writing on the inside of the cards.  Hmmmmm.  It could be interesting if you happen to be one of the three people on her Christmas card list.  

This makes me smile just to think about it.

Where the Heart Is.

Home

We come and go.
We paint the walls and mow the grass, and except for when it's time to make the mortgage payment we usually don't give a whole lot of thought to "home" and what it would be like if we suddenly didn't have our home.

Mom has a home.  A nice home that she's lived in for 30+ years.  Then she fell ill, and it's no longer possible for her to live in her home.  It sets empty.  My sister and I do the necessary maintenance and there are many who would say we should sell it, but neither of us have the heart to do so at this time.  Occasionally when Mom is back in her hometown she'll want to see her home.  Then there's always the question of whether it is a "help" for her or a "hindrance" to her well-being, advanced dementia being what it is, it's sometimes confusing for her.  She grieves for the loss of her home.  At first the grief was on-going.  Now the grief seems to only rear it's head on certain days.

Last week our family went out to eat Chinese food.
When the waiter brought the fortune cookies at the end of the meal we all had a good laugh as we read our funny fortunes.  Mom was the only one in our group who had a serious fortune cookie.

She read it aloud.
The meaning didn't seem to register.
But it made me very sad.

A Bowl of "Happy"!

Can you imagine what it would be like to NEVER feel hungry?

That can be one of the side effects of advanced dementia.
Mom is never hungry.
You can be sure she never turns down ice cream, but as far as being "hungry" - it doesn't happen.

Today our family stopped for fast food tacos.
Can you say, "Taco Bell"?  [smile]
Mom likes tacos, so that's not the problem.
She told my husband not to order her anything because she wasn't hungry.  It had been several hours since any of us had eaten anything and everyone else was hungry, except for her.  He went ahead and ordered her a small taco and a glass of sweet tea.  She grumbled.  I told her  to just eat what she wanted and leave what she didn't want.  (Mom hates to see food wasted, so that fact was on our side.)

"When you get old, people just boss you around", she groused.
But she ate the whole thing.

She sees the doctor next week so I'll be sure to mention her declining appetite to him.  Until then I'll continue to boss her around coax her to eat at least something at meal time.  Then at bedtime I'll take her a bowl of ice cream and she'll forgive me for pushing food at her throughout the day.  She needs the calories and it's a bowl of "happy" that never fails to please.

When you're 84 you can eat ice cream every night at bedtime, which gives us all something to look forward to!