Been a while
Its been awhile since I last posted. I have been thinking about it but never put words to paper. The last time was the night of Kate's wedding. In the weeks following we have had Reconciliation, two 1st Communions, Confirmation and our teen service week. It has been so incredibly busy but also so life giving and joy filled. The pace is incredible and I moved so quickly from one major event to the next that I never truly processed all of it. I have had ten days off and have had time to sleep and to read but yet my head continues to race with thoughts.
I had thought the time off would at least slow the thoughts of next year, planning, programming, retreats. I was wrong. It has been great to have time to rest and sleep and follow those thoughts and see where they led.
Joe has had some more decline since Kate's wedding. Right now he uses Liz's name interchangeably for both girls. Today at his physical he referred to Liz and the other one. It broke my heart. Kate will always be his little girl. He was the only one with enough patient to go shopping with her. She would spend hours in Target looking at everything and he had the ability to follow her around and talk to her about everything they were seeing. He wasn't great at giving clothing advice but good at the rest! After Target, they usually went to Starbucks because he had after all passed on his caffeine habit to her. All Kate had to do was look at him with those puppy dog eyes and a long drawn out "Daddy" and he was sunk. He desperately wanted to walk her down the aisle but I still want him to know her as more than "the other one".
Liz has been home for two months doing two rotations for her final year of Vet school. After all the problems she had with the declines in Joe at Christmas this time she dropped in and was able to be with him and talk to him and help him with the constant changing of DVDs. Fortunately for me, Liz had the week off that I was on the teen service trip. I was away from 6:30am to 10pm and it was a really long day for both of them. I told Liz that by the end of the week his agitation would be increasing so to crush a tablet and put it in his drink. One night as I arrived home, she met me at the door. She was on fire. "Crush his tablet she says! Put it in his drink she says! He will calm down she says. I did all that and what happens, for the first time he decides he doesn't want raspberry ice tea, he wants peach! Just when you want Alzheimers to work for you, once again it goes against you." I was very grateful it was all said with great sarcasm and laughter but she was ready to take me on. I was also lucky she told me not to drink the raspberry ice tea in the fridge, because it was drugged! Just always shows you life is never dull.
