Posted 5-7-20
Howdy all! The week is nearing conclusion, I think…. Where is the date on my darn phone??? Ahhh…ok, yes. We are at Thursday, close to be what used to be referred to as the weekend! Woot. The date, apparently, is May 7th. Since it is a slow day between series at the Cornbread Table, let’s take a look at famous happenings on this random day in history and see how they could possibly relate to dementia. Trust me…it won’t be too much of a stretch. Off we go………
(Thank you Peoplehistory.com for providing the historical content here:)
“1947 – U.S.A. Levittown, New York: Levitt and Sons, Builders announce a 2,000 home rental community at Island Trees later becoming Levittown, Hempstead, Long Island, New York ideal for GI’s returning home following the end of World War II, the project used a new type of construction based on mass-production housing never used before, due to the prefabricated design they could build 30 houses a day. Following the success of the project they announced a further 4,000 homes which would be for sale not rental, offering ownership on a 30-year mortgage with no down payment and monthly costs the same as rental. After two years they began offering a larger home “a ranch house” 32 feet by 25 feet ( 800 Sq Ft ) for $7,990. The concept was copied all over the United States and modern suburbia was born.”
Mom knew a thing or two about home building and working with tools. Her dad and uncle built hundreds and hundreds of homes in my home town, moving from one to the next as they built. In dementiaville, it is very interesting how the tools of the trade stick with our loved ones. Mom didn’t have a trade, as such, but she sold pianos and was married to a piano tuner for many years before she married my current stepdad. Mom’s nurse told me yesterday that she brought mom to the piano recently and she still pecked around on it. Amazing considering being at end stage where she is. Several of the Sweet 17 have remnants of their past careers. One sweet soul, Ms. W., was a teacher and is still holding class in the memory unit. Another was a longtime policeman. She bossed around everyone and maintained order. Our careers and what is physically important to us stick better than most anything. Interesting… Muscle memory is etched in the brain in a very unique way as well.
“1941 – U.S.A. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” : Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” The song was first featured in the 1941 movie “Sun Valley Serenade,” a movie that starred many of the biggest names of the day. It became one of the most popular hits from the era and even has its own website.”
Growing us where we did, the railroad played into several facets of our lives. As a kid, my siblings and I would walk along the railroad a ways on the way home, stopping sometimes to play at the edge of what was likely a toxic mini-pond/large puddle at the track’s edge. We would bring home tadpoles that we coerced into nasty cups we would find and bring them home. Mom, ever the animal lover, would drag out the aquarium and let us raise them until they grew legs and escaped or died. Dementia is powerless to take away mom’s loving spirit. Another train-related memory was sitting in my room, with a 25 foot coily cord tethering me from the kitchen, talking to my girlfriend Susan. I lived near the tracks as did she. Often, as we sat around talking about everything and nothing, I would hear the train…and about a minute later I could hear it on the phone too. We were distant, yet close. That reminds me soooo much of sitting next to mom at the nursing home…distant, but close. She told us “I love you too” right as we were leaving our video chat yesterday…probably the longest sentence she can string together…and without a doubt the best. Distant…more than ever…but close.
“2008 – Oil Price Could Reach $200.00 per barrel in 6 months: Argun Murti the Goldman Sachs energy strategist has warned oil price ‘may hit $200 a barrel’ in 6 months due to the available supply to demand needs. Oil peaked at just under $150.00 per barrel July 2008 — ( current price May 6th 2009 — $56.47 )”
What a difference 12 years makes! Our gas right now, after several upticks from a low of under 4 bits a gallon, is about $1.30/gallon. Today, even after a huge jump, oil sits at around $30/barrel. This wild ride reminds me of mid-stage dementia. Mom has been stable now for several months. Not markedly worse, but incrementally declining such that it is hard to notice. However, the previous couple of years in mid-stage dementia, she was wildly up and down. One day she would have a “good day” and would be really pretty cogent in communication and behavior. Then the other shoe would fall…or she would fall…and everything would derail for a week or two. Look at the old Digital Cornbread posts. You will get it. This is one of the hardest parts of a loved one struggling with the disease. Sorry for the mixed metaphor here, but it is a constant Mohammad Ali “Rope a Dope“. It jumps around, always avoiding understanding and “comfort” until you just wear out. It was very hard. 🙁
“1956 – UK Health Minister Rejects Call for Smoking Bans: The British Health Minister RH Turton, rejects calls for a government campaign against smoking, saying no ill-effects have actually been proven from smoking and the link between smoking and lung Cancer has not been proved.”
Mom, like nearly everyone she knew, started smoking early in life. She told me one time that the fact that she had to smoke was more than just trying to be in the “in crowd”…you practically had to smoke to have friends. While I ma not willing to say smoking “causes dementia” because that implies that it is the cause (there are likely many causes), I feel very confident that it is part of the cause. Here are just a couple of articles discussing it: Link Link. Smoker have a 45% higher risk of getting dementia may be tied to the ole saying we use often “What’s good for the heart is good for the brain”…and likewise. Smoking is bad for the body, heart and brain included. Want to avoid dementia? Start there. Mom smoked for decades, but stopped 20 years ago. Dementia was already brewing in her brain. Did stopping slow the progress? It may have…
“1934 – Philippines World’s largest Pearl Found: The 9.45-inch, 14.1 lb “Pearl of Lao Tzu” is found by a diver in a giant clam in the Palawan Sea. Gemologists do not consider this to be a true pearl, as it does not have the mother of pearl, i.e. it does not have the iridescence that true pearls (which come from pearl oysters and pearl characteristics ). Clam pearls have no intrinsic value as a “gemstone”, but only as a curiosity.”
One of mom’s favorite people was her brother’s wife Shirley. Aunt Shirley was a simple lady. She was truly one of the most loving people I have ever known. She was flamboyant, funny, and a couple clicks on the volume louder than most folks, but in a very winsome way. My grandpa, for some reason or another, used to semi-sarcastically call her “Shirley Pearly” and mom wasn’t thrilled, but didn’t complain loudly to the patriarch of the family. When Aunt Shirley died, and a few years when Grandpa and Grandma died, it affected mom profoundly. If you want a triggering event for mom’s dementia to worsen, these deaths, especially the latter two, were certainly them. Much research has been done and the results are a little jumbled, but everyone agrees that many, many have trouble recovering from a death or a major surgery due to a flare up of dementia. Was it underlying all the time and needed a trigger or did the break cause it? That is the vexing question.
“Robbie Knievel
Born: May 7th, 1962, Butte, Montana
Known For : The son of Evel Knievel, Robbie has forged a career on the same path. He rode in his first show when he was eight, and was performing jumps by the age of twelve. He left school in 1976 and has made a career of motorcycle jumps. His home site lists over 250 successful jumps and 20 world records. His promised jump of sixteen buses is still being arranged in London, and his desire to complete it is because of his father’s inability to perform it.”
Sorry…this one isn’t about dementia. However, mom was more brave than a Knievel in merely raising her two boys. Add my sister and later two wonderful step-sisters and later one more step-son and step daughter, and mom would have been better off jumping a canyon.
“2001 – UK Ronnie Biggs Returns To Finish Sentence: Ronnie Biggs, one of the “Great Train Robbers” who had eluded capture and settled in Brazil following his prison escape in on July 8th 1965, voluntarily returned to Britain, where he was arrested and jailed to complete the 28 remaining years of his sentence. He is currently still in Norwich prison.”
Dementia stinks. There are ups and downs. There are even times that yo think you may have beat it. However, this disease has a 100% mortality rate. It is the only top killer of humanity with no treatment that extends life, nor a cure. We may elude capture…we may prolong the duration before it starts, and we may even prevent it from starting…but once it starts…the timer starts. 🙁 What a terrible disease!
You know…none of these are, at face-value, “dementia-related”, but they do, again, show that when dementia hits your loved one, it is hard to not see it everywhere you go. 🙁
#EndALZ
Update: Thank you for all of the comments and views yesterday. 🙂 We were granted an opportunity to do a window visit Sunday for Mother’s day and we look forward to giving that a whirl. 🙂 55 days is a very long time.
A bonus 5/7 for you from 1 Peter:
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.