The latest news that's fit to publish.

I think somewhere along the line I've mentioned Sudley Manor House. I'm not sure whether I mentioned that since my birthday, my grandmother has been a resident.

Grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's right after her second husband, Don, passed away in September of 2004. The attempt was made to have her stay with my uncle, Bruce, but that just wasn't working out. So Grandma ended up staying with my sister, Cyndi, and her husband Gary, and my niece, Mysti, for near enough a year. She was happy there and they were happy to have her, but as the disease progressed, her care got to be simply more than they could provide.

So now Grandma has her good days and her bad days. I get by to see her often when I have a few minutes, since she is now close to me. Sometimes I drop in for 10 minutes and say hi, and it seems to brighten her day. In any event I always spend an hour with her on Thursdays while the kids are volunteering.

Last week she seemed to be in better spirits, and of sounder mind, than average. I made sure I got over on Friday to spend some time with her as well, and I told her I'd bring the computer to share some pictures with her...this is how that came about:

I told her that we were planning to take the kids to Hawaii for spring break in 2007, which happens right after Terri retires. I mentioned that I had told the kids that if they didn't keep their act together, we'd take someone else instead.
Grandma pointed to her own chest and said "You can take me!"

I had the pictures from last year, and told her I'd bring the computer. So I published this web site to disk so that I could share it with her. She seemed to really enjoy it a lot. It didn't take long before we had some of the staff, and some of the residents looking on to see the pictures. Grandma really brightened up seeing some of the pictures, not just from Hawaii, but also older family pictures that Dad had scanned and sent me, like pictures of Grandma's father, her and my grandfather, etc. She would tell the others "That's my dad." or other tidbits related to some of them.

All in all, though it wasn't one of her better days to start, she had a smile on her face when it was time for me to go. As a bonus, she got a couple of Valentine's Day cards from friends, and that means a lot to her.