Perspective

I haven't written much about what is happening here and lately I have had several occasions recently to remind me that much of our life is based on perspective.  It is wonderful how sweet everyone is to Scott and at Church I see people going out of their way to speak to him and I love his sweet responses when they do.  I know he has no idea who they are but he covers himself well.  In that same respect sometimes he sees someone and will immediately tell me the persons name even though it isn't someone he even had a close friendship with.  Whenever I compliment him for remembering some detail he is always surprised by the comment.  One of the greatest blessings of Alzheimer's disease is that I know Scott is totally unaware of what he doesn't remember any more.  We have recently seen two different movies in which a character in each one had dementia and were in very advanced stages.  I watched Scott when the conversation went on about their condition and he had no idea that he was going to become just like them.  I have to admit the reality is so much harder on me!

We watched a movie about John F. Kennedy's assassination and he asked me what ever happened to the man who killed him.  I explained that Jack Ruby killed him as they were taking him to another location.  He was shocked.  When they showed the picture of John Kennedy Jr. saluting as the casket went by he wondered what he was doing now and I explained that he died in a plane crash.  He got tears in his eyes.

I have tried to come up with ideas to keep him occupied and busy and packing boxes has been a great distraction and something he is very good at.  Each day he likes for us to drive over to our pending house to look at it.  He says each time, "it's still here!" and then we go on about our day.  I wonder what we will do once we settle in?  He still loves to read and while packing I found numerous family history stories of many of his family members and so once we get settled in I want to get those out for him to enjoy.  I thought I would also see if he would enjoy reading the Work and the Glory series.  Of course when we get moved I plan to see how his painting skills are!

He has passed the shower needed several times a day stage to needing to be reminded to shower.  It is always better to remember to be grateful for the good things--and not complain when they seem a little excessive!  Don't worry, at least he isn't arguing with me when I remind him that he needs to shower each day.  The best part is that he makes me smile every day with the quick retorts he makes about something that he saw on TV or a thought he had.  He actually has developed a fun sense of humor and he laughs often which always touches me.  Life is different than I thought it would be but it is still good!