Running Away

Mother has always been something of a go-getter.  She is independent and growing up on a farm, she had plenty of space to explore and play.  But as a toddler, it wasn't safe for her to wander about without a parent around.  So, when her mother was working in the garden or hanging clothes on the line, she rigged up a baby "leash" to keep mother safe.  She put a belt on Mother and then tied a rope to the belt and hooked the other end to the line of the clothes line.  Mother could run up and down the length of the clothes line and out as far as the rope was long.  She had the freedom of some movement, but she was safe, and her mother could get her work done.

Mother is once again on a type of leash.  Early on in her disease, she kept saying she wanted to run away.  It didn't matter where, she just wanted to run.  I think she felt changes in her mind and the only response she had was to "run away" from what she felt.  She would sit and talk of "running away" to Hawaii or to Idaho.  Sometimes she said she just wanted to get in her car and go, but she didn't know where to go.   Once she even drove her car into the far pasture on her farm just as it was getting dark.  She wasn't sure where she was, but she did make it back to the house.  This has been a major issue as the disease has progressed.

When she first went into an assisted living facility, she did get out and run away.  One January day she inserted herself into a group of visitors who were leaving, and she slipped out the door with them.  Staff noticed and followed her, but she led them on a merry chase into nearby buildings, through parking lots where she checked for an unlocked car to get into, over a vacant lot where she picked up a piece of PVC pipe and threatened the staff that followed her and finally into a hotel where she tried to "check in".  She wasn't  wearing shoes only socks on her feet and had walked through mud and crossed a small creek.

Now she lives in a nursing home in the Alzheimer's unit.  Her "leash" is an electronic ankle bracelet that sounds an alarm if she gets out.  For a while she still tried to run away, but she could be bribed to go back in with chocolate.  Now she is fairly content where she is and never tries to run away.  In fact, many times she is not comfortable going outside.  It is too overwhelming. Now she is safe, but I miss that spunky woman who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to go find it.