It’s my mum’s 78th birthday today and she doesn’t know it. With all my heart I know how much she wanted to grow old and be a doting grandmother and mother and care for her family whom she adored, even though she never told any of us how much she loved us.
Her life, her hopes and dreams have been taken away. She lies in a tub chair all day wondering why this has happened to her. She cannot understand why she is amongst so many other older people. She cannot understand why she is not getting better. She wants to leave the nursing home that has trapped her.
The underlying hope is that someone brings a smile to her face, that she is comfortable and not in pain. That someone will feed her when she is hungry and will give her a drink when she is thirsty. That someone will notice when she is cold and cover her up, and when she is hot they uncover her.
She is still uncomfortable and embarrassed when it’s necessary for two female nurses, or one female and one male, to change her pad, particularly after a bowel movement. She depends on these people to bathe her and keep her clean.
Her biggest pleasure in life is eating. Fresh fruit, sweets and chocolates are her favourites and she will devour a fresh caramel tart in seconds! As long as someone feeds her.
My hubbie and I would often take mum out for dinner or for coffee and cake and she loved it - until she could no longer walk. How I miss those days. How I wish I could make her better and take her out again.
We communicate with sound, eye contact and with body language. I read her face to work out what she needs. Mum can no longer talk.
Mum has Alzheimer’s Disease.
Her life, her hopes and dreams have been taken away. She lies in a tub chair all day wondering why this has happened to her. She cannot understand why she is amongst so many other older people. She cannot understand why she is not getting better. She wants to leave the nursing home that has trapped her.
The underlying hope is that someone brings a smile to her face, that she is comfortable and not in pain. That someone will feed her when she is hungry and will give her a drink when she is thirsty. That someone will notice when she is cold and cover her up, and when she is hot they uncover her.
She is still uncomfortable and embarrassed when it’s necessary for two female nurses, or one female and one male, to change her pad, particularly after a bowel movement. She depends on these people to bathe her and keep her clean.
Her biggest pleasure in life is eating. Fresh fruit, sweets and chocolates are her favourites and she will devour a fresh caramel tart in seconds! As long as someone feeds her.
My hubbie and I would often take mum out for dinner or for coffee and cake and she loved it - until she could no longer walk. How I miss those days. How I wish I could make her better and take her out again.
We communicate with sound, eye contact and with body language. I read her face to work out what she needs. Mum can no longer talk.
Mum has Alzheimer’s Disease.
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