Little Things

I've been away for a week.  When I have to be out of town, I usually worry about Mother.  This time, other family members checked on her, and as terrible as it sounds, she has declined so much that I knew she would have no idea I had been gone.  She didn't.  She looked at me when I came into the room, and it was just like every other day that I walk in.  It is true that with Alzheimer's every day is just like every other. But even so, Mother finds joy in the little things that appear every day.

More and more Mother sleeps or lies in bed and looks out the window.  I have hung a basket of petunias outside her window so that she can look at them, and today she was delighted to see some bees at the flowers.  The little things of life are what bring her so much pleasure.  A cup of fresh blueberries, strawberry ice cream, a coke for "happy hour," or a bee outside her window.  Her world is very small, and perhaps I too should take more pleasure in the small delights of life.  Even in her dementia Mother is teaching lessons on life if I pay attention and see what is just outside the window.