Going home to see my parents on Thanksgiving has been sobering. It used to be when I went home to my hometown of Ithaca, WI, I felt much younger, b/c it was the home of my youth. Seeing old classmates, seeing the school, seeing certain old shops in Richland Center, I am reminded of when I was young.
But not so anymore, my Dad has Alzheimers and it's sobering. It reminds me of what happened to his Mom, it forces me to recall that Mom had to deal w/ the brunt of Grandma's disease and now she is doing the same thing w/ my Dad but even moreso b/c she obviously lives w/ Dad 24/7.
Personally, I feel old, and it's not such a stretch to think that there's a good chance that I might get Alzheimer's if I become old. That's reason number 5 why I would just as soon die when I'm 79.
Still, I love going to Ithaca, and my kids don't go there enough. I want them to have a strong connection with MY side of the family. There's a built-in disadvantage b/c they are hundreds of miles away, and they can see MB's family by going a mere 3 miles.
In the last part of my 3 day stay in Ithaca for Thanksgiving, I worked at chopping wood and stacking it in their basement. I absolutely love "cording" wood, stacking it. I would venture to guess that it's one of my favorite work activities and probably my favorite physical work activity. Plus, I used it as a way of burning calories. I wish it had helped more b/c I ended up gaining over 5 pounds.
But that was ok, b/c I ended up burning the weight off when I went back to work.
The turn-of-the-year holidays came at a good time. I was working extra, extra hours at work (what's funny is that when I was finally paid for working all those extra hours, this past Tuesday, my ofc. manager said if I ever worked that much overtime again, he would have me murdered).
XMAS and New Yrs. were nice b/c Maribeth was with us to celebrate the holidays as I didn't go to WI to celebrate. The big criteria of a "successful" XMAS is that the kids like their gifts, and to our relief, they did. The problem is that we couldn't take XMAS pictures, b/c our cellphone is making all the pictures miniature. We can't send them in any family e-mails or to my blog! It's a real pain in the ass, and I don't know how to solve the problem!
I must take this opportunity to once again say that I really enjoy and am grateful for my inlaws. If I got along w/ MB as well as I get along w/ my inlaws, we would have never been divorced!!!
So I enjoyed celebrating XMAS w/ MB's sister, her daughter and MB's father. I received the gift of money which is my favorite gift of all!! Ted made sure that I got a gift card from Walgreens.
On New Yrs., I usually don't get to celebrate the coming of the New Yr w/ Maribeth b/c she always works the next morning on New Yrs. Day. But since she had her surgery, she has been off. We celebrated New Yrs. Eve for the 1st time since 1999-2000!!
Better yet, the kids stayed up, and they celebrated with us. We had a fun time and the 3 holidays: Thanksgiving, XMAS and New Yrs. Day were a nice, relaxing time.
1 comment:
That's so nice to know that the holidays went well. About Alzheimer's, you know that my FIL has it and a few months ago I found out that my FIL's parents also had the same kind of disease and that my MIL took care for them ('coz they all lived in the same house). MIL's MIL was a rather tough patient 'coz she became aggressive after the disease attacked, whereas MIL's FIL was a much better patient.
Even with all her experience, she said that taking care of her sick hubby is the toughest one of all (probably 'coz the dreams of a future together with hubby - travelling together or something - becomes zero when the disease attacks).
She's been doing some therapy sessions with a counselor and the counselor told her to get in touch with others through the inet. She's joined a forum for people who take care of their sick beloved ones and she's gained so much support from them 'coz they understand completely and they can give her encouragement and information on many things. I hope your Mom also gets that kind of support. I've been reading (secretly) what MIL says in that forum and I often cry my eyes out while reading...but I can only pray for her.
I also wonder if hubby will suffer from the same kind of disease. I did a little research online but it seems that although there MIGHT be a genetic link, not everybody who has the same genetic pattern (?) suffer from the disease. Well, for better or worse...I should just cherish all the time we have together 'coz we'll never know how much time we have left, eh?
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