My search for grace and meaning after a former care partnering life with a wife who suffered from Parkinson's disease and dementia giving her a confused and disorienting world.
Sen. Warnock from Georgia and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta says this often when he preaches. He found inspiration from his father who told him every day, get your clothes on, put on your shoes! His dad’s point was only you can do it. No one can do it for you. It is up to you and your attitude.
He is a pastor of southern Baptist convention. I am not a Baptist but the lesson is not lost no matter your faith or lack there of. It is up to you to make a difference in your own life and the lives of those around you. No one can do it for you nor should expect for someone else to do it.
We have to start with ourselves. Let God in. He will make a way if you let Him.
The past few days have been sleepless and disturbing. Cheryl has one of her meds that she has been taking for a long time seems to be bothering her at night and not allowing her to sleep. As we sleep in the same bed on the same mattress I do not get much rest either.
Two nights ago I gave into the thought that it was her Sinemet CR tabs that were both helpful overnight and disturbing her sleep. I discussed it with her and she wanted to try taking only one tab for overnight. She slept until about one o’clock and got up to go to the toilet. She came back to bed and slept until the seven o’clock alarm for morning meds.
Wow! Could it be that easy?
Last night we did the same thing. She did not get up at all. I had a little extra laundry to do in the morning but I did it with a full night of rest.
Now it is the weekend which should be a time to relax and rest but we have little to do on the weekend calendar. I lean on my kids. Cheryl has been talking about the kids all week. If I can I take her to visit.
My first thought is my son David. He has a wonderful backyard to sit and visit. My plan was to visit on Sunday but as we drove to our favorite place for a walk Cheryl said she would like to visit David. I had told her as we were driving along about visiting David tomorrow afternoon. Somehow that translated into today in the afternoon. I called David and he said sure.
We took our walk and sat on David’s back patio the rest of the afternoon.
Maybe tomorrow afternoon we can find Max’s ballgame and visit Anna’s family.
A good friend of Cheryl’s from church organized another luncheon with her and another mutual friend today.
Back in the bygone days of younger kiddos and the everyday working world, Cheryl was part of the group of women (mostly) who decorated the church for various holy days or other events in the church calendar. Often Cheryl’s job was to clean and press and arrange the alter cloths just so. The group would spend an evening or Saturday decorating the church for the occasion.
These days are gone for her and the decorating committee and St. Ann’s sodality has thinned over the years. Today however Cheryl and Barb are hooking up with Diana, the team leader, who has moved to a retirement community with her husband on the other side of town.
It gave me time to experiment with banana bread and fool around with other things. Maybe even blog a little.
Friday the 13th comes on Friday this month. It is a little joke I have. An old boss of mine during my working career who is also a good friend used to make that comment when it was appropriate. It seemed to him that mystery problems would appear on Friday the 13th. Engineers love and hate mysteries.
A friend of Cheryl’s came to take her to lunch today.
I am waiting to see how it turns out. Barb is aware of Cheryl’s issues but we often only see her at church. Cheryl will have a chance to practice her “showtime” persona.
The lunch was great. Cheryl had a great time with a good friend and she brought home leftovers that she may or may not want to eat. The went to a Asian restaurant called the Blue Gibbon. Typically when we go to a Chinese or Asian restaurant she will order egg rolls. Nothing else for her, she only wants egg rolls which the restaurant people want to bring as an appetizer. No amount of english, american english, spoken to a person whose first language is not English can convey the meaning of “bring as her meal”.
The last time we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant (Uncle Yip’s) I ordered her egg rolls, some spring rolls for me and another dish that I like and I thought she would like. We had tea. The waiter brought the the egg rolls,spring rolls and asked if we needed more tea. Later he brought our shared dish. It worked out just fine. She was not embarrassed to eat ahead of me and she did eat a little of what I had ordered to share. The smart waiter brought us extra plates.
Uncle Yip’s, by the way, is the closest thing to actual Chinese cuisine that I have found so far. I visited China about ten years ago for business. And the owner’s and wait staff’s first language is not English.
This company wants me to buy a device that pretty much tells me I am not dead yet. I already know that. I run to the store and run to the library and run to the doctor fairly often. I am pretty sure I am still running okay and not dead.
Many people, probably most, spend a great deal of time running here and there. It is ingrained in us. We chide each other if we are not active. But instead of running what if we took a deep breath and stopped to look around at God’s wonder of Spring and the renewal of life. It happens every year. It is truly amazing.
Breathe and notice the world. Run for exercise and health but do it outside where He can show you His wonder.
Stephan T. Patsis is a favorite cartoonist. His signature work, “Pearls Before Swine” is the cartoon in the comic section of the local newspaper that I read first when my wife hands me the funnies and says, “There are some funny funnies today.”
You have to choose to be happy. The goat who is somewhat intellectual and thought provoking tells rat. An absolutely true statement from a smart goat. One does choose to be happy and no one else can make that choice for you.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. – Desiderata by Max Hermann
The one who I could tease a little. The person who when I would toss a teasing barb at her would toss it right back and then some. Fifty plus years of marriage let you do that to each other. We had some great times. We had a lot of fun times. We always wish that the kids will have as great a time and Cheryl and I had along the way. We were never rich financially but there was always enough to make it work out. We were and are rich spiritually, socially, romantically and personally. I suppose that is what makes her mental state so disturbing and frustrating to me in this part of our life.
I can go back and forth, staying present and grieving what is lost to us. As I think of these things and reminisce I think of the song, “As Time Goes By.” There is a British TV show of the same name with Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. It was one of our favorites. We rarely sit for long enough to watch any TV show. Any plot line makes little sense to her so she loses interest and gets up to go organize her office. It is her form of something called punding which is a useless and senseless activity that many in her situation do.
Cheryl was the one who was super organized. She kept the check book. She paid the bills. She was hawkish about getting and keeping and filing receipts for groceries and gas and any other expenses. She preferred to pay cash for stuff. If you did not have the cash in your hand, you did not buy it. When the kids were small we went to the grocery once a month and filled the larder. When it was gone you had to wait for it to come around again. There were some exceptions of course for milk and eggs and bread but generally you had to wait. The kids learned to be frugal. They were allowed to pick their own special things for school lunch and they learned how to make it last. Even when the children moved out to have their own lives we still shopped mostly once a month.
Cheryl knew how to use a screwdriver and still does but somethings that were second nature to her are now befuddling. How to open and what to do with an email. She once put all the family information into an Access database to print addresses for birthday cards, Christmas cards and anniversary cards. She knew how to drive that simple data system. She was used to putting together other databases and accounting systems for the clients she and others had in their small computer services company. It is hard now for her to wake up Microsoft Word to write a letter these days.
She was the one who did most of the household chores. I do that now and I do not mind doing it but she would if she could stand up long enough to do the laundry, make the bed, cook dinner, bake a cake or pie or simply vacuum the carpet.
Both her motor control and mental agility are greatly diminished and she is aware of those diminished abilities and it frustrates her.
She is the one who loved to hike. My favorite memory of this is a ten mile hike we once took in March many years ago. We hiked around a lake in a Kentucky State park. It was an eight mile loop and a two mile hike to the trailhead and back. We surprised some badge earning boy scouts about five miles from no where as we sat for a bit to enjoy the view and soak up the unusually warm March sunshine that day. It is a wonderful memory. We slept well that night.
She wants her old self back too. Who wouldn’t? Her sister passed way in the pandemic. Her sister also had Parkinson’s disease. Jan had other things going on that kept her from surviving the Covid wave in 2020. She still sees and talks to Jan. Tonight she sent her a text message. Tonight she does not understand that Jan will not answer but I might be the one who is wrong about that. Jan might answer. She often does – answer Cheryl when Cheryl talks to her.
Cheryl saw Jan at the table when we sat down for dinner tonight. I have no doubt that Jan was real to her. We discussed it. She decided to send her sister a message.
It is a powerful thing to see how strongly she was certain Jan would answer. It was moving to me. She went into her office to partake in a zoom meeting with some friends. She gave me her phone to hold in case Jan would call back or return her text above. These things sometimes break my heart. I try to keep them inside.
There is still time for new memories. I am sure of that. None of us knows when we are leaving this Earth. The best thing we can do is look for the good things, look for the humor in today’s situation. It is, however, difficult on some days.
An update after I published this about an hour ago. She came back from her Zoom meeting and remarked that she had not been out this late for a while. She wondered aloud how she would get home. I smiled and said that is the magic of Zoom, you are home. I gave her a tour of the condo.
What gets people even total strangers to talk to each other? And what gets them to talk about intimate subjects?
The other day I was in our local IGA waiting for the deli guy to get finished with an earlier customer and I noticed that I was not next I was three from next. A woman came in behind me pulled number 20 out of the number dispenser and looked disgustedly at 16 displayed on the Now Serving display. She seemed in a hurry. It was lunch time and people working nearby often come in to pickup something for lunch. I pegged her for one of those people. I traded numbers with her. I told her she seemed in a hurry and I was going to do some other shopping while I was waiting for my number to come up.
I walked around the fresh fruits and vegetable area near the deli while waiting for 20 to get close. I got the other items I needed in that part of the store and found myself waiting while 18 was displayed as Now Serving. She initiated the conversation. I was only going to get cheese. I replied me too. I told her that I needed some Hoffman’s American cheese because I had planned on making macaroni and cheese. It had to be Hoffman sliced american cheese because in the past our daughter had related a story to Cheryl about our grandson Max telling his mom how he liked grandma’s macaroni and cheese better because grandma used special cheese. And why couldn’t she get some of grandma’s cheese to make macaroni and cheese with?
At our house we now call Hoffman’s cheese “Grandma’s cheese.”
She laughed and offered to give back 19 because she too was going to buy some Hoffman’s cheese. I replied no, that is okay I have plenty of time. I am retired. She told me that she was retired also and that she had worked in administration for Maple Knoll retirement community. She went on to tell me that she had cancer and was in treatment. So far, it was working. Her cancer was in remission.
I asked her if she knew Lynette Petersen, our friend that had recently passed away had worked as the executive chef at Maple Knoll. She had been retired from Maple Knoll for a few years. Number 19 had probably left Maple Knoll shortly after Lynette started there. She said the name was familiar but she did not work with her.
We exchanged other pleasantries and discussed other cheeses and how it seemed that Boars Head was taking over the deli case. She was not satisfied with Boars Head and I agreed.
But what would make her want to tell me about her cancer? That seemed a left turn in the conversation about retirement and its features. That seemed to me to be intimate information that one might not want to pass along to a total stranger. I was an empathetic face because I exchanged tickets with her?
Perhaps I was a friendly face and my kindness persuaded her to tell me about her current crisis.
I was an ear so she could expose her anxiety and worry without consequence and without concern about getting perhaps unwanted and unsolicited advise from family or a close associate. At that moment I was a help to her.
Cheryl went to high school with Rosie. Rosie went on to become a Sister of St. Francis. Cheryl went to the prom with me and four years later we married.
Yesterday after many scheduling issues we hooked up for lunch. Cheryl was moving very slow that afternoon. Rosie moved very slow with her and very gently held her arm into the restaurant and over to the table. In conversation, Rosie, the quiet calm and gentle person that she is with her own health issues, gently took Cheryl down a memory lane of remembrances from their high school years to their current time.
I slowed a bit and observed. Slow and gentle were Rosie’s movements, her companionship, her conversation. I learned something.
When we got home Cheryl rested for a bit.
I realized that Cheryl needs to go at her own pace. I always knew that she did but I did not always observe that pace or make myself slow to her pace. Cheryl’s pace is principally Parkinson slow with occasion spurts of Parkinson fidget and sprinkled with Parkinson frantic and a little normal motion and conversation.
She did not seem really very tired or ready to go to bed at what I think of as her normal ordinary bed time of 9:30 – 10 PM. I tried to exercise what I had observed earlier in the day and suggested we play a card game or work a puzzle for a while. She said let’s play Uno. We played with half the deck. She shuffled the cards and asked, Does everyone get seven? I said yes and she did not deal any extra players. Uno for those who do not know has a simple theme. Follow the color or follow the number. She could do that for about an hour or so. She began to notice on her own when she could not tell the difference between red and green. She declared herself tired about 11:30 PM and we got ready for bed. She slept soundly for several hours — all at her own pace.
Rosie taught me something. Let Cheryl set the pace. And if she is not around, think about letting God set the pace. Life is peaceful at Godspeed. Life at warp-speed requires quick reactions and having your shields up at all times.
Adjunct_Wizard 