CAREGIVER NOTE:

YIPPEE! He took a stroll around the new deck and down the stairs. Walked across the yard, through the east gate and around to the ramp and up to the front door! He said he loved smelling the air — a little bit of wood smoke still lingered from early morning and seeing all the brilliant colors on the trees in the neighborhood. He felt safe on the deck now that the railing is up and all around. The stairs and rails are extra sturdy and there’s no “wiggling” when he holds on to go down. He was all smiles! But sadly they didn’t last long.

He asked several times yesterday to call his brothers — and before I could answer he said, “don’t tell me they’re dead.” How do you respond? He asked to see their obituaries, and thankfully, his wife had saved the newsprint copies in a binder and I was able to share that with him. I need to scan those and upload them into the cloud so I can pull them up when he asks again, because he will. He “remembers” seeing both his brothers working on an irrigation head gate and his Uncle Pert asking them to repair another gate for him — all this happening just a couple of days ago. These memories/hallucinations make things pretty hard for him to reconcile. He knows things aren’t right, but can’t put the pieces together. He had tears yesterday, again. Dementia/Alzheimer’s sucks!