In October of 1942, she boarded a bus for the north to work in an ammunition plant. While living in Pennsylvania, she met her second husband; they married in August of 1944 and had one daughter the next year. She worked many different jobs, a clerk in a drug store, a waitress in a restaurant, and helped to milk the family's dairy herd. Around 1953, she went to work for the Acme Markets, and, from there she retired in 1978.
She retired only because she couldn't remember how to make proper change anymore. Or maybe she wasn't quite sure what her customer's name was. She wished someone a Happy Easter, but it was the day before Christmas.
It wasn't long before she stopped cooking, stopped eating, then, the pacing started. All day, she paced the house. Finally her husband retired to take care of her. He cooked the meals and fed her, sometimes forcibly. She could no longer dress herself, so he dressed her. She didn't know when she had to go to the bathroom, so she was put in diapers. She couldn't hold a normal conversation, so she just stopped talking.
She would look at you, and not know who you were, couldn't remember your name. But she was the one who gave you that name.....gave you life.
On a Saturday in May of 1998, she was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. On Monday, the doctors were talking nursing home, by Tuesday, hospice. She came back to her home. On Friday, early in the morning, she went home to be our LORD, very peacefully, with her devoted husband and two daughters at her bedside. And, it was over, twenty-two years of caring for a woman who would've done as much or more for you, a woman who was a victim of Alzheimer's, a nasty, incurable, agonizing, hateful disease that affects the whole family. Be sure to enjoy your love ones while they can still enjoy life.
Miss ya, mom.
7 comments:
She was very pretty. That disease has to be the worst of the worst in my opinion. There is none more cruel. I am sorry you and your family, and your Mom, had to be victims of it.
Blessings,
Red
Thanks Red.
I am so sorry for your loss of your beloved Mother..I worked in a VA hospital and saw the disease at the early days of 1981 no one seemed to know what it was, a cruel and heartless disease, I pray daily for a cure for it..I lost my Mom in about a 6 month time frame, I was very young and it has affected my life so much, I had only 1 child a beautiful girl but losing my Mother, living in foster homes, beaten, lots of other stories, I took my time to marry a saint on this earth who is the oldest of a huge family second marriage at that, never knew his oldest sister who was 17 when he was born, dad ran around with anyone with a skirt, and took to drink and gambled, he told him to get out and never come back, he did! Mom never divorced him, he never did anything for his family, but when he was dying he wanted to apologize for his behavior my sweet angel of a husband forgave him the only family member who did..well he died peacefully, our only child remembers well what he said to her daddy and me I had never even met the man before his painful cirrhosis of the liver death and cancer all in his body..I say each day is a big gift, each day a holiday, I celebrate the people whom I love dearly the first day of the month of their birthday, one never knows what time one has given, why not be sweet, loving and kind, I saw before I was 21 years old the loss of almost every family member from my Mother's family, I had to go on and I say this always if not now when??????????????? I read your blog and love it, it touchs me like no other I have read, your daddy sounds like the last of the true sweet gentlemen on this earth and you sound so level headed and kind it just makes my day, ciao!!!!!!!!
Thanks Anon. I enjoy your comments. Life's not meant to be fair, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Bless you.
Your mom was so beautiful, sorry for your loss. That disease is so awful for the person going through it but also for their loved ones....take care and God Bless
Kim
Thanks Kim, Yeah, it is a nasty disease for sure. To this day everyone talks about how Dad took care of her. He told me when it started, "I married your mother for better or worse. I've had the better now this is the worse." I'm a lucky daughter with the best parents a kid could've had.
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