Nighttime Conversations

She was still awake when I came to bed after reading for awhile. This conversation ensued.

C. – Dan is that you?

me – No it is me Paul.

C. – Oh. You’re here now?

me – Yes. Is that okay?

C. – Where are Jan and the rest of the kids?

me – Gone now I guess. They must have gone home.

C. – Okay. Are you staying here?

me. – Yes. Try to get some sleep. I’ll stay here with you.


In the morning as I got her awake. I had checked on her a few times earlier but at quarter ’til ten I gently urged her awake. She said, “There were a lot of people around here last night.” I replied, “Who did you see?” She replied, ” I didn’t see anybody but I could hear them.”

When she sees people they are very real to her. Before going to bed we had tried to play Scrabble for a bit. Scrabble was her favorite game for many years. We had not played it for about a year and a half. I thought I made a cool discovery. I tripped over a Merriam website called scrabble.merriam.com that helps to find words with certain letters at the beginning, end or containing them. I told her about it and showed her how to search on the website look up page on the laptop. It was too much for her.

She became tired and put on pajamas and got ready for bed. As i helped her take her bedtime meds, she asked me something about her sister Jan. She wanted to save some information for her about the upcoming Sunflower Rev it up for Parkinson’s fund raiser. She then asked me for Jan’s phone number.

It is hard for me to get a grip on conversations like this. I start first by asking if she knows where Jan is. Sometimes she remembers Jan is deceased. When she remembers this I tell her to merely close her eyes and talk to her. This time however she did not remember that Jan was no longer here. I reminded her that Jan was in heaven to which she replied, “Yes, she is talking to mom about it. Do you think you can find a number?” I told her I would look for it in the morning.

It is morning and she has not asked me for the telephone number yet. But there were a lot of people here last night in her head.

Carpe Diem.

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