Posted 9-25-19 (a.k.a. 3 months until Christmas)
Is a picture worth a thousand words? Ten Thousand? More? I think so too. A picture might be the difference in a criminal being prosecuted or a husband losing an alimony case. Pictures prove (or disprove) the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, whether the president uses a hairpiece, whether I have a future as a swimsuit model and what was lost in a tornado. To some of these folks pictures are everything in making their case or proving a truth.
Mom had a period of her life a year and a half ago when pictures became especially valuable too. As her memory started to fade into the free fall failure we have now, mostly unbeknownst to most of us, she started “scrapbooking”. I use this in quotes because her scrapbooks were mostly filled with article scraps and odd word pictures out of newspapers and magazines. She carefully collected them into large envelopes and always kept them close at hand. She looked them over often trying desperately to keep from losing her memory and she seldom doodled in them, unlike other books and pages. As the pages were created later and later, the small notes she jotted in them became less and less accurate as the memory fled like a fearful fawn. If you remember some of my early articles, she kept these pages in her plastic shoe box of valuables, which were infinitely valuable (only) to her(…and me now). She never went anywhere in the house without her shoe box and her purse filled with her treasures. Its value on the open market: $.25 on a good day. To her, its value: priceless!
Isn’t it funny how what is valuable changes by circumstance? Here are some examples:
- Water compared to gold in the desert.
- A pint of gas compared to the stranded Porsche.
- Time compared to money as we age
- Gold in the streets of heaven
What do you hold dear? What do I? I mean, what really matters so that you are sorting it into little folders? Will those things even exist 20 years from now? 200 years from now? They were mission-critical to mom at the time and we didn’t even understand why. Now we do. Maybe we could all benefit from evaluating what is truly important in our lives, and work on that? Just a thought from me, someone with a plank in his eye.
With this concept sort of in mind, I present to you 10 of my favorite object pictures from the Walk this year. The people are extremely valuable too, but they will be the subject of a later post. 🙂
I love this picture of the promise garden flowers with the water running between them. We are all in this stream together, folks. If you don’t have a loved one with dementia yet, mark my reluctant/sad word, you will. What helps one of us helps the rest and what hurts one hurts the rest.
My sweet niece Paisley made this wonderful poster that we proudly walked carrying. Her drawings would be mom-approved to the highest order! I also loved how she noted the word “Happe” several times. See, little Paisley sees the joy in mom’s eyes even in the pain when she comes to town to visit, and understands as well as a grade-school princess can. Things are hard for great-grandma, but somehow all will work out fine in the end. Then she will really be Happe!
I snapped this poster before most had showed up to our event. While it was obviously a sign to have available to point people to the relevant flower color for the promise garden, it was also a little poignant to me as I walked by. None of us get to choose our flower in this mess. The circumstance we are given chooses it for us. Whether we are a 27-year-old early-onset patient or a 104 year old Sweet 17 damsel in distress, we take our life’s flower and we do what we can with it to make God proud.
It takes thousands of “feet” to organize and walk an event like this, for each of whom I am thankful. Feet also reminded me of mom’s favorite number: 5280. She still used to repeat that number off and on as recently as a couple months ago. I even mentioned it Monday when we were hanging out and she smiled and said “yep”. How the statue was holding its big toe up reminded me in an odd way of mom giving the OK sign in this little, awesome video:
Supposed to- Interesting. My first thought is, lie fis supposed to be perfect, like heaven. Then sin entered when Adam and Eve fell and things went haywire. Some sweet day things…paradise…will be restored.
Things Happen- In a messed up world like we currently live in today, things happen! Good things, bad things and neutral things…all within the grasp of the Lord. He is in control and He loves us.
My torn wristband reminded me that Edward Jones has done a tremendous amount for the association in funding and manning these walks. They deserve kuddos to the highest order as do the dozens of excellent corporate sponsors and the thousands of folks who donated to bring the amount collected to well over $100,000 in our walk alone. It also reminded me that doing good things is costly sometimes, in money, in time, in calories burned and in arm hair. (Come on, world…it is 2019! Make a wrist band that doesn’t rip off our flesh… but do it after you finish curing Alzheimer’s!)
This interesting stature reminded me that people of all groups of humans get the disease. In fact, according to the 2019 ALZ. Facts and Figures document “Although there are more non-Hispanic whites living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States, older black/African Americans and Hispanics are more likely, on a per-capita basis, than older whites to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias. Most studies indicate that older black/African Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites. Some studies indicate Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites.” LGBT folks seem to be less likely to be checked early for the disease and need our prayer.
This upcycled fish statue reminded me of the need to have a dementia care team…and how beautiful it can be when it is working. There are all sorts of “gears and hubcaps” functioning together to be sure that mom is cared for well. My stepdad goes 3x a day (!!) to feed mom (over 1,000 times since she has been in the memory unit!) I go several days a week and work with the nursing staff on site and with the hospice staff on the phone. My sister also does the same set of roles as I do although she gets more calls late at night. We have friends and family who visit and check on her as well. We are a complex little fish that works swimmingly for the most part. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a upcycled fish to care for a mom.
Ice cream…purple ice cream in particular…is the object of note in this picture (although my sister and my niece are super cute!). The fact that it was purple reminded me of something to remind you: symptoms are sometimes hard to see because the patient hides them well fearing the disease, the loss of freedom, or something else. Don’t feel bad or alone if you missed the signs. Dr. Oz, everyone’s favorite TV doctor (?), announced recently that his mom has the disease and that he had completely missed seeing it. We missed the signs that mom was getting worse because most of our contact with her was on the phone or in a controlled setting. This stinkin’ disease hides like purple ice cream on a purple shirt! 🙁 …until it doesn’t. Here is a little tool I modified to help you discuss the topic that uses the principles found in a popular alz.org flier.
The weather on Walk day was forecast to be rainy. There was a 40% chance which, in the Ozarks, means it will probably rain on you. We got about 1 minute of rain, followed by a day of beauty. Remember Christian, this disease stinks…it really does! No sugarcoating this terrible disease. However, the clouds will someday part and for an eternity the weather, and our brains, will be A-OK! Keep your head’s up, keep fighting, advocating, serving, loving, and keep looking forward to a cure and/or an eternity ahead!
Pictures are a blessing. They are valuable to us. Keep them, and your memories close and never take them for granted. What’s in your shoebox?
Update: Mom keep doing well in her new normal. She is eating and keeping hydrated. She has avoided UTIs and sores lately and has been quite smiley. Praying for a cure sooner than later before the picture changes.
#EndALZ