Sitters and Walkers

There seems to be two kinds of ambulatary folks in the Alzheimer's unit - sitters and walkers.

Walkers pace the hall.  Some "see" things on the floor and stoop to pick up the imagined object.  Some look for spouses or children and may stand at the doors and pound on them.  Mostly they just walk endlessly from one end to the other occasionally sidetracking into the lounge or dinning room or someone elses room.  They tend to be quiet, mumbling only to themselves or occasionally asking a question.

Mother is in the other group.  She is a sitter.  She sits in her swivel rocker occasionally, but mostly she sits in the lounge and sips a glass of tea or lemonade and watches people or the tv.  I often find her there just sitting and watching.  Another resident from the general population comes in on Wed. afternoons to hold "church" for the Alzheimer's patients.  Sometimes she really gets into church, and she shouts Amen and slaps her knees.  Other times she jumps up and says,"Get me out of this.  These people are crazy."  She sits and visits with the aides and nurses.  Sometimes they work puzzels or look at the ads from the newspaper.  But most of the time she just sits in her world of the moment.  That is mostly what she has - just the moment.  Yet, she seems to make a life and some sense of those moments.  She can't remember anything for more than a couple of minutes, so sitting and experiencing each moment is all she has. The joy of the moment is real joy, but the moments of fear are real fear too.  Yet I know that it is all fleeting - its only the moment.  She has to live in the present and the distant past because that is all she has.  She sits and waits for the next moment.