Hi Shawn,


 RH> he passed away. I think it took Mom several months to grieve before
 RH> she felt like doing any of the activities the place offered but she
 RH> is enjoying them now. Also nice that family is close by and can pop
 RH> a visit easily.

 SH> That's normal to grieve for a few months at first anyway.  Glad she is
 SH> doing better and taking advantage of some of the programs offered.

And complaining about the cooking. She gave the kitchen some of her
recipies when she first moved in but they've never used them. Probably
hard to scale up in huge quantities if you're not used to doing that
however. Good thing tho is that she is part of a group that they let mix
up (baking done in the facility's kitchen) pie, cakes, various other
treats from time to time. Also, my one sister in law will pick her up
and take her home to do some baking, especially around holidays. Mom has
to have tight supervision when doing that but she does enjoy working in
the kitchen.

 RH> Actually, 2 people because Dad would close out the letter with
 RH> usually a fairly substantual note of his own. Toward the end, he was
 RH> writing, as Mom's mind was too far gone.

 SH> When my Nana passed away that was the end of the letter writing I saw.
 SH> She used to write her family back in Alberta and being that they were
 SH> from the depression era they used this criss cross way of writing to
 SH> get 8 total pages out of one peice of paper.

I've read about that being done, especially in the time of the American
War Between the States, on the Southern side.


 SH> Even if I had one of her letters, I don't think there is anyone left
 SH> alive who can read that. hahaha

Takes a special skill to figure it out. Now if everybody wrote in a
different colored ink, it might be easier to decipher.


 RH> brought on the dementia rather rapidly.....looking back, we saw some
 RH> signs of it coming on but didn't recognise them  for what they were
 RH> until too late.

 SH> We are glad in a way my sister is a type of nurse so she saw signs
 SH> with Dad and for the most part he's okay... mellowed a lot but does
 SH> get frustrated when he can't remember something.

Is his a quiet, gentle dementia? That's what my mom's was but my dad
said that his grandmother had a mean, nasty dementia. It took Dad sveral
years (until about 6 months before Mom passed away) that he could bring
himself to use the word dementia to describe her.

 RH> We know it's there, but just eat it a little bit at a time, and
 RH> intersperse other goodies.

 SH> I have no will power. ;)

More like won't power? (G)

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... If your mind goes blank, remember to turn off the sound.

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