Saturday, December 11, 2010

2000-2010

A decade has gone by and what happened during the 10 long years.
For sure this past decade was the hardest of my life.
The diagnosis had been delivered but I was still living with hope that perhaps it was a mistake so decided to be in Canada when the clock struck "2000".
We were on a tour way up north, a train ride tour in snow country and a celebration for New Year eve in Canada. We did not buy into the horror stories of the change into the new century. We were going to have a ball.
Bob got lost in the motel, then he took twice the wrong suitcase and started a fight about it with the owner. We stopped at an aviation museum and the enormous hangars frightened him. He ran outside.
In the train I saw a couple and he was clearly out of it, I saw her go with him to the small rest room and I thought "is this an Alzheimer patient?" and what is she doing on the train with him. Clearly she came for her own enjoyment and some extra work. I pondered over that during the whole vacation, would I go on a trip with Bob in that condition?
2003 We went back to our old favorite place, Spain. We went with friend Allen.
I had reinforcement and Bob was still alert to know where we were going and what we would do on the trip.So I thought. He got lost in the men's room in the airport. two exits were there and I did not count on that. I sent a man inside to find Bob, he was gone.
We found him in the other corridor.
Small stuff but scary.
By 2007 we entered a worse stage, a meaner one, and extremely demanding on my vigil and patience. Son moved in when he lost his wife but that upset old Bob.
He did not want another man in the house. He did not know his own son anymore.
It tore at the heart strings of my son. Yelling at each other was an often unwanted scene. Old Bob hid everything in sight and accused us of stealing.
The last year in that decade I fell and broke my ankle forcing him into a nursing home and me in rehab. He was there 6 months to the day and left us for good.
It was a very unhappy decade.

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