Yesterday was one of those days. Normally I'm up before the alarm rings at 5:00 AM, but after a restless night I slept until the alarm went off. For some reason I didn't go out the back door, instead I walked in to kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.
That's when my day really began. As I reached the end of the hall I could see Mom at the front window peeking outside and trying to open the curtain. At that moment I knew it was going to be one of those days.
I asked Mom if she wanted some coffee, which she did, then I asked if she wanted breakfast and again she did. So I made her some coffee, went out and retrieved the paper and made her some breakfast. With Mom's hunger needs satisfied I went out side to enjoy a cup off coffee. After about ten minutes, needing a refill, I came back inside only to discover Mom had eaten about two bites of her breakfast and then quietly crept back to her room. Well OK, it was about 5 hours early for her to get up so it didn't surprise me that she went back to bed. I cleaned her leftovers off the table and put them in the fridge for later. That ended up being a pretty darn good move. For some reason Mom only stayed in bed for about ten minutes and came out hungry and looking for food again. At that point she actually seemed pretty sharp and she stayed up a couple hours reading the paper. It seemed today would be good day. Boy, was I wrong.
I had an appointment in town so one of the girls stayed with mom while I was gone. She went back to bed and got up again a couple times during my outing and was sitting in her rocker by the window when I came in. I hadn't been in the house two minutes and she tried telling me about, something, what I didn't know. I had no Idea what she was trying to say. I heated her up some coffee and after a few minutes of probing her for information I found out she was telling me about an article that I had written in the daily paper. It's been 20 years since I'd done anything like that, but she didn't believe me and kept telling me her thoughts. Finally frustrated, she shuffled off to bed. I didn't know it, but this was just the tip of the iceberg compared to what was coming.
Since Mom had been up about four hours longer than normal, I figured she would take a nap. Oh no, not today. She was only in her room about ten minutes this time. She shuffled over to her rocker and picked up the paper. I asked her if she was hungry and would like something to eat. Wrong question. She looked up from her paper, glared at me and snarled, "it's about super time isn't it"? I told her dinner was about two hours away and this time I asked if she'd like a snack. Wrong question again. She s snapped at me again and informed me sternly that she would wait for supper. Things went pretty smoothly after that, well until dinner was over.
Once dinner was over the real fun began. First it was her Mother had been here and just left. Then it was aunt Laura's house was just around the corner, she had been there, went inside and it was empty. Next it was " where's my car"? Followed by "it's almost winter, it's time to go home". So that's not so bad. Well it ended up as a four hour circle of the same questions over and over again. At one time as Paula and I were explaining that her mother had passed away 19 years ago, Mom became angry and said " NO, NO, NO, NO, I just talked to her"!
Finally around 10:30 Mom asked us how she had gotten here today. We again explained that she has lived with us for a year now. With that she said, "OK, then I'm going to bed". And it ended as quickly as it started.
It has taken me a few days to write this post, but as a side note, Mom slept 22 hours the next day. It took me almost all day to get her out of bed once for dinner.
I always read your posts and always gain a little insight to some of the things I experienced with my father. Your ability to share yours with all of us I think helps greatly to understand something that is very difficult to understand. Thank you for finding the words that I cannot.
Thanks for the kind words Dana. Writing helps me deal with it too.