The weeks slip by...

Blogger gone missing :-)

Just getting on with my life.
Oh? Partner's mother? Oh yes..she is in a care home. We visit once a week. He visits...actually. I go less.
My life.
It's cherry blossom season here - one week early - and JUST timed right the Golden Week of public holidays. I have a few classes on two days, but the rest of the time is free. 

DS and I went to visit Okaasan a week ago. Sunny day.
We took her out in the wheelchair to the local temple grounds, looked at early flowers and green trees. Kids playing. Felt the warm breeze on our faces. Back via the cafe in the convenience store for coffee and sweet sake drinks. She loved it.
She had been having a a hard time with constipation when we arrived at the care home and continued to chat away about how she felt like she was dieing in the toilet...all the time in the temple gardens.
But all was well. The care home staff said she has really settled into routines now. When we arrived she was sitting at the main table in the lounge - facing other residents, rather than the TV. Some kind of social interaction. Much more now.

DS has been again since and reported all was well. A bit of walking with the frame, chat, a wheelchair trip outside. We had hoped to try and do a short-trip in a car to a cafe or restaurant - but decided crowded public holiday time isn't the best idea.

I'm still doing hospital visits every week to my seriously-sick friend. Now she can't speak, and can hardly eat even sloppy foods. A lot of pain. Visits are so hard. I prattle on and on about stuff. Hold her hand. Cry. So, I let Okaasan visit slides a bit. I haven't seen her for 10 days.

Her two rooms in the house are slowly returning to us. Cleaning out her stuff still - this last week I managed to sell the Hawaiian dance dresses and a table. We had two Couch Surfing guests to stay in the actually very nice traditional Japanese room. I still have to go thru all Okaasan's stuff in the chest of drawers.

It's been almost a year since her fall, then hospitalisation...and a whole summer and autumn of physical and mental decline. Last year was so stressful.
Now seems so calm.

Oh! Before I forget.
A quick shout out for a book about living with early-onset dementia. Wendy Mitchell is a feisty campaigner in the UK. Her book is now out and has been a popular feature on British radio shows and TV.
Now published in America. I know some of you here are in America, so here is the cover and title. Wendy's blog Which Me Am I Today? 
Of course, early onset is a different situation from Okaasan, but Wendy articulates so well much of the experience of dementia. She is well worth reading, blog or book.