Week of Oct. 5-Oct. 11

Dad's declined mentally this past week, which has been hard to witness, but even in this decline Dad's loving nature and good humor shines through.



To understand this first story, you need a little background information: I'd told Dad earlier in the week that Christie was coming for a visit--my sister who lives in Pittsburgh--and I'd gotten a long-overdue haircut, making my hair look more like Christie's.



On Friday, after not seeing Dad for perhaps 24 hours at the most, I peeked in on him to say hi. He'd been asleep, but woke up and said, "Oh, I'm so glad to see you! You look wonderful!" He held out his arms for me to come give him a hug and a kiss. He obviously thought I was Christie!



I felt sad that he was losing the ability to tell his children apart, but I thought how wonderful it was to have a father whose response to one of his children was to be so happy to see them that he wanted to hug and kiss them!



Dad also didn't realize who I was when I had to speak to him on the phone this week. But again, he spoke to me graciously and sweetly.



Let me hasten to add that since that time, Dad's known who I was.



Here's Dad's joke of the week: on Tues., Dad was given some medication that made him hallucinate. He was agitated and telling me that he had some "concern about the Rasmuss boys"--did he mean the Rasmussen boys, a family that moved from our ward some years ago? It wasn't clear. I stroked his hair back from his forehead and said, "I think you're a little confused." He grinned at me, clearly lucid, and said, "Just a little confused?"--he can even find humor in a hallucination.



That's all for last week. I'm headed to Penn State this week to visit my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, so there may not be a post next Sunday.



I've appreciated hearing from many of you that you're enjoying this blog. We are grateful for your interest, for your love and concern.