Recent Entries

• Losing a part of your past

  July 24, 2018

  One  gerontologist has suggested that as we age we externalize our identity onto things.  For example, we buy an inexpensive mug to remind us of a vacation we have  enjoyed .  Every time we use it we remember fondly the vacation and the people we were with.  Over time with the fading of our brain...

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• Summer clouds

  July 12, 2018

  If we if we could see the clouds from the other side where they lie in billowy glory, bathed in the light they intercept, like heaped ranges of Alps, we should of be amazed at their splendid magnificence. We look at their underside, but who shall describe the bright light that bathes their summit...

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• Dementia Journal, June 26, 2018

  June 26, 2018

  Mom’s been so sweet lately. All day she sits on the big sofa in the den and dozes for long stretches , wakes up and starts asking questions or reads either  out loud or to herself her favorite Bible readings and devotions. I’m so thankful she can still read but it’s getting more difficult and&hel...

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• Retirement is real

  June 8, 2018

  This past May 31 marked the one-year anniversary of my retirement after 21 years at my last place of employment. It now feels like I’ve always lived like this, although it took about six months to completely adjust. I have to say I love it. It makes caregiving for my 94-year-old mother who has de...

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• Dementia Journal: May 13, 2018: Troubling developments

  May 13, 2018

  Today is Mother’s Day, and I’ve tried to fill the den with flowers because Mom loves them so much. I woke up late this morning because no caregivers were coming in. One was supposed to come and relieve me from 4-8 today, but she called yesterday and said she just couldn’t come — too much…

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• Dementia Journal: April 23, 2018: Questions and Answers

  April 23, 2018

  Dementia brings a severe loss of memory and awareness of one’s surroundings. Mom will often gets some question in her mind she urgently wants answered. She will repeat it over and over and each time we repeat the same answer. To help preserve my sanity and that of the caregivers, I’ve written up ...

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• Silence is golden

  April 10, 2018

  There is another kind of silence to be cultivated besides that of the tongue regarding others. I mean silence regarding oneself — restraining the imagination, not permitting it to dwell too much on what we have heard or said, not indulging in the fantastic scenes of picture thoughts, whether of t...

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• Dementia Journal, March 3, 2018

  March 3, 2018

  “Mama! Mama! Daddy! Mama!” This is what hear lately on the two-way monitor when I’m upstairs in my room and Mom needs something, usually extra cover or to use the commode by the bed. It might be 4 am or 7:30 in the morning. Oftentimes if it’s before 4 am, I’m up reading on my…

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• Leaving a trace (revisited)

  February 23, 2018

  Note: Here is an entry from November 1, 2006 that I posted at Open Diary. I have re-read it twice now, and also the very thoughtful notes and comments, and I think I have finally decided what to do in answer to the questions I posed. But I’d like your opinion. I feel sure you…

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