Sheila and granddaaughter, Isabel, Christmas 2005Although my husband's cousin beat me to this post, in honour of Sheila's memory, I will do one also.
Andy posted in his blog about the death of my mother-in-law on New Year's Day. I received the phone calls from the hospital and the nursing home, and Alan and I drove to the hospital - she was gone.
Any person who has a loved one with Alzheimer's knows that this is one of the worst illnesses imaginable. Sheila didn't know anyone put her own son at the end - I was perhaps just a lady who came with Alan.
A couple of small stories: Last February, I received a telephone call from my husband. He was at the nursing home with his mom. He was laughing so hard, because of the news that he had to tell me. His mother just told him that she was getting married, the man was very rich, and she was 4 months pregnant (remember - she's 76 years old and in a nursing home). Sheila was so happy, and Alan was boing happy for her also.
The next one is when I was at the home just after her death. I went to pick up the belongings that we weren't donating to the home. I was on the intercom with the unit to have someone let me in, and a nursing aid was standing next to me. The aid was stunned - having seen Sheila just two days prior. She told me that Sheila was upset because her son, Alan stole her toothbrush and toothpaste. Sheila told the aid that the just telephoned her son and he was on his way back to the home with another toothbrush.
She did know her son until the end. And that's a good thing.
1 comment:
Nice one, Liz. The pictures at the bottom are very poignant and tell so much of the story of her last years.
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