Mr B died

It’s been a confronting & sad week with one of my dementia friend’s husband dying and after dropping Mum to the bus for her day centre I learn that Mr B her ‘boyfriend’ has also died.  Just brings it all home & makes it all a little too real.  However, I’ve decided to honour Mr B by writing a little bit about his ‘relationship’ with my Mum.  I will add that Mr B was happily married but he was a massive flirt with everyone & made Mum feel like it was just her.
Each morning that they are both getting transport to their day centre, Mr B is already on the bus when Mum & I arrive.  It goes like this:
Mr B:  “Morning pinky” – this is because my Mum’s favourite colour is pink.
Mum:  “Morning perky”
Mr B sings:  “She wore pink knickers & a hooly hooly skirt” etc etc
I didn’t know this song & whilst Mr B knew all of the words, my Mum would also remember some of them as he sang his way through the song, she would finish the lines.
I returned home to google/youtube it but couldn’t find it anywhere until suddenly I realised that Mr B had changed the lyrics slightly.  For those of you who don’t know the song is ‘She wears red feathers & a hooly hooly skirt’ & it’s by Guy Mitchell.
Mum doesn’t remember Mr B so we won’t be telling her that he’s gone but we will miss him & their special morning repertoire.   RIP lovely Mr B xxx

 

Oh the things that happened in Ibiza!!!

When Mum first got to Ibiza someone dressed her as a boy & she trebled the takings!

Mum said she stopped a man in Ibiza from getting his 9 or 10 year old son drunk & at the end of his holiday he thanked her very much!

Mum said people in Ibiza used to ask how someone so young could run a restaurant as they thought she was only 14 not 45!

When Mum ran the restaurant in Ibiza with a Ten Pin Bowling Alley she got really good at it because she went to work half an hour early in the morning & at night to practice.

She didn’t have a dog in Ibiza btw but apparently “I had to be careful with our dog in Ibiza!  Especially when he was in the restaurant because he would steal food.  He didn’t steal food the rest of the year, only Christmas food!”

Mum said “When I worked in Ibiza I had to bury all the dead bodies, in the walls & on the beaches!”

Mum rescued a dying man in Ibiza & then he could get a job & pay some money to a children’s home!

Apparently “In Spain you were only allowed to say Merry Christmas to someone if they were wearing open toed shoes!  I got told off so many times because my Merry Christmas didn’t mean anything!”

Mums chef in Ibiza once made a chocolate cake & was told by someone “Don’t ever make it again!  It is illegal on the island!  I will call the police!”

Many about police

When Mum was a young driver she was stopped twice by different policeman to ask her where she had learnt to drive as she was so good at it!

Police stopped her many times to congratulate her on her driving apparently!

The police came into the bar in Ibiza & asked where Mum got her clothes from as she always looked lovely.  Mum said “They are only scungy clothes from the bench!”

“The police came into the restaurant in Ibiza & said, “You’re so good looking can we bring some other people in who are working so you can give them lessons on how to be good looking?””

When Mum ran the restaurant in Ibiza & people wanted to dance, they had to go outside as playing music in the bar was illegal but okay outside!

The police came into the restaurant in Ibiza & said how well Mum’s nails were filed!

“The police came into the restaurant to ask how I got on so well with the locals!”

“When in Ibiza, I was outside doing something & the police stopped & asked me why I was doing it.  I told them & they said I was amazing & gave me some money which I put into the tips!”

“The police came into the restaurant & said they needed to talk to me somewhere quiet, so we did & they said ‘How do you do it?’, ‘what I asked’, make so much money?’ ‘I said I smile a lot!”

“The police told me it was illegal to have bar stools in Ibiza!”

“The police told me it is illegal to dance in any restaurants in Ibiza!”

Mum has a phone number in her address book under ‘Police for Naughty Parking’

 

 

 

The things that make you sad

So….when asked where the cat Emily is (who died 30yrs ago) I get away with saying “she’s probably out & will be in later”.
Now it’s the dog (who died 25yrs ago), but saying she’s out is distressing so I had to tell the truth, which was worse……..

It’s not all funny comments.  This morning Mum said “Sometimes I want to cry because I’m so empty!  My head used to be full of things & now it’s empty & I’m a dickhead!”

It doesn’t matter how much you laugh or distract.  The fact remains  that I can no longer have a conversation with my Mum, tell her about my day or expect her to make any sense.  It’s worse than living alone.  It’s like the loneliness you can feel in a relationship that no longer works.  Like you are trapped in a sad & isolated bubble.  She expresses nothing but love & gratitude (mostly) & gets back irritation & rolling eyes (quite often).  Each day I think I’ll do better tomorrow & tomorrow I’m just more warn down & sad.  Heyho!

When you live day in day out with someone who is mentally deteriorating it can be hard to see how fast it is or isn’t progressing.  I’ve realised a huge marker for me is when seeing others.  Like taking Mum to her Podiatrist for the first time in 2 months & Seeing how different she was to how she normally is with him.  Or seeing her GP about her, but without her (at his suggestion) because it’s easier & him expressing great sadness at how different she is.  Or her Singing For The Brain teacher telling me how frail she looks & how much she’s aged.

To hear my Mum always say “Was I okay today? Did I behave alright?” breaks my heart.

You hang on to the moments

To go to bed this late but hear your Mum say “I’ve had a lovely day & a lovely night, thank you, I’ve it enjoyed!”  It’s priceless!!!

Amazing how a tiny thing like hearing your Mum hum the ‘welcome song’ from ‘Singing For The Brain’ instead of Jingle Bells for a change can make me smile.  So blessed for not just the big things, but the little things too….

Lucidity isn’t needed for Connect 4 & the ability to rock out to The Goo Goo Dolls & No Doubt!  Great end to an eventful day.  A very happy Mum & me.

My Mum is incredible!  After such a frustrating & challenging day, she really shines through with being all about love & happiness for others!

It would appear that Mum still knows how to jive!  With the singing teacher at Singing For The Brain in front on 20 people!

She’s humming Agadoo???!!!

Mum ticked everything on her ‘Memory Board’!  Puzzle for brain stimulation, photos for remembering people, walk for physical exercise, brushing Kobie for affection, Life Story Book for future memories, perfume for self love, pills for health, foot wash for self care, watering herbs for nurturing & stories for memory stimulation.  Perfect day!

What a joy!!!  My Mum has stood in the rain, oblivious to getting soaked & ‘Bomp, bomb, bomped’ to some beautiful orchestral pieces played at the Piazza.  Bouncing on her heels in the Cornish drizzle.

 

Random nonsense

Mum just said “I’ll do some of the ironing.  I create most of it because I am the cotton drinker!”

Apparently every time Mum has been to the loo today she’s “Done a candy box!”

Mum said “I’d better go & check the clothes on the airer, they’ll be healed now!”

Watching the Surfs movie & Mum just told them they’re “all dickheads!”

Mum wants the HomePride man to come for dinner!!!!

Mum told my boyfriend that my best friend was in the same movie as her stepmother!

I have to confess I don’t have permission to share this one but I’m going to anyway.  Mum & I just got in the car park at Tesco’s & she realised she had no bottom teeth in!  We can’t stop laughing!!

The joys of trying to set volumes on a new landline phone with a demented mother who keeps answering!!!!

Mum & I went Tesco shopping in Truro.  As we drove into the car park she said “I thought we were going into Truro?”  I said that we are in Truro but not actually going into town.  I was put right with:
“Truro is not a town it’s a city!  The only city in Iceland!!!”  Well that told me!

Mum said “My Father was taken to court for damaging a patient’s handbag because he accidentally kicked it in his clinic!”  It was apparently okay though because he sent a member of staff.

Apparently a week or so ago we were rummaging through the grass near Sainsbury’s looking for a small animal that may bite!

Arrived at Mum’s Podiatrists & she offered to wait int he car.  I told her she can’t have her feet done in the car & she replied with “I thought we were picking up a dog or a cat to look after for the week!”

Mum keeps asking me if she has a card for her hotel.  Lol, no idea?!?!

Mum said something wrong & then said “I was probably being a bit wanky!”

Mum & I are were watching a movie about a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who can sing.  Mum is blown away that  dog could sing like this & in such a human voice.

Watching You’ve Been Framed.  A glider crash landed & tipped up onto it’s nose.  Mum said “God, that’s never happened to me before!”

Mum dressed herself after a nap & came down in her thermal vest ontop of her long sleeved t-shirt.

When Mum worked at Harrods (true) & complained that she wanted to be taller, they tried to help her by giving her pills!!!

Watching Surfs with a constant dialogue about it (from Mum).  She said “Cats would be nicer if they were blue!”

Mum told my friend not to smash her children too hard, just a little bit of smashing when they need it!?!?!

Mum says you should ‘lick’ your children when they do something good!

Back in 2016 the GP’s didn’t believe how often Mum is up in the night so Mum had to keep a record at night.  She wrote times next to:  Bed & Up but at 5.50am she didn’t write Bed or Up, she wrote IAN! Lol

When my Brother was looking after Mum she told him “Rachel treats me nicely – most of the time!”

I take Mum out for a drink at least once a week.  My Brother was looking after her & suggested they went out for a drink & she said “Yes please I haven’t been out for weeks!”

Mum told my Brother “Rachel’s Dad has died, on Christmas Day.  She came home after 30 minutes & I said that she was quick & she told me ‘Dad has died’.  I said I’m so sorry is there anything I can do to make it easier? but Rachel said ‘No, but don’t mention it again!” She forgets that she came with me to his cottage on Christmas Day, one of the few blessings of dementia.

Mum told my Brother “One time Dad punched Rachel.  I stopped him & asked what he was doing.  He said he thought she was a boy!”

Mum asked my Brother “Has your friend gone?”  He asked “What friend?” Mum said “The girl that was sitting here this afternoon”  He replied “There was no one here & it’s the morning!”  Mum said “Oh, I used to have a boy here but he died!”

Mum had been out of bed for 2 hours one morning with my Brother, comes into the living room with her nighttime flask of tea made and says “Goodnight!”

Mum told my Brother “I wanted to get rid of the car but Rach wanted to keep it!”

I took mum to get her passport photos done a couple of years back in the machine at the post office that talks to you, advising you how to sit etc.  I told Mum she wasn’t to smile but just keep looking at the camera etc.
Machine says to Mum “Are you ready?” Mum goes “Yes thank you!” with a huge smile!!!  A guy waiting to do his photos cracked up laughing and said “Oops, I think you’ll have to go through all of that again, she smiled!”  Next time I told Mum don’t smile OR talk to the machine.

After Mum believing that should get rid of all of her cd’s because she no longer wants to listen to music (haha), I persuaded her to play though them each night while we were having dinner.  We started with a 60’s cd which caused dancing in her seat & singing!  We listened to 2 60’s cd’s & the next morning her usual humming of Jingle Bells had changed to singing a song.  A 60’s song you ask?  Nope! A French song, in French!!!

As I hung the last of the pictures in the lounge Mum says “There’s a picture missing of me upstairs.  A huge one of me that was on the wall?”
We went upstairs & she showed me the gap on the bathroom wall where her Betty Boop towel usually hangs.  I had no idea my Mum was Betty Boop!!!

Mum said she she felt sorry for the lady at the restaurant over the road where we had my Birthday lunch who had marks all over her body.  Mum couldn’t deal with the blue & green things on her plate, passed it to my table & the lady told her off!  WHA?????

Watching Mary Poppins with Mum & she’s singing, dancing & laughing hysterically.  Of course she’s “Never seen this before!”

Mum asked me when we are getting our dog?  Apparently a man said the other day that he was giving us a dog!

Mum said that all this time we’ve been visiting Uncle John & she didn’t realise until yesterday that he was the man from the stage show.  The one that’s on TV???

Mum feels the cold because she had some cancer & the doctors told her that that’s why she gets chilly!

Mum said that when we got our dog Pandora, the vet said that she was only going to live for 6 months because she had tried to commit suicide before!

After a visit to Mum’s GP she said to me “I adore him!”  Then felt it necessary to add “Not sexually!”

Picking Mum up from her day centre with chocolate around her mouth.  Her favourite thing in the world, that & Bacardi & coke.  When I told her she said “I haven’t had chocolate, I hate chocolate!”

Mum “What’s a hickey?”
Friend “A love bite”
Mum “Oh I’ll have to ask Rachel if she wants a hickey from me!”

Mum “We rescued a dog when the kids were young (true, I was about 12 I think) & she was in such a bad way we had to take her straight to the ventriloquist!”

Mum said “Thank you for the music it’s memory stimulating!”
Me “Great what memories has it stimulated?”
Mum “I can’t remember!”

Omelette in her bag etc

Mum’s just going to put her omelette in her bag.  Actually her scarf!!!

Mum just said she needs some sucky sweets in her vegetable suit, no wetsuit, no raincoat!

Lady on TV called Mindy.  I said to Mum, “Thanks for not calling me Mindy” She said “You’re welcome.  I can’t remember where I got the name April from!”

Mum & I were waiting for a car to move in a car park to let us get out the other day.  She said “That cars oven is running, not oven onion, no MACHINE!”

Mum said “What does it say on your branch that’s on the plug?”  Meaning what my jumper on the radiator hahaha

Driving Mum to her day centre & she looks up to the sky & says “There’s a lot of blue in the roof today!”

Whilst driving I was told “You missed the turn!  The restaurant is down there where we’re going to buy pegs!”  I said “We’re going to take another turn to the post office to buy stamps.”  That’s what I meant” she said.

We were driving to a friends place for a cuppa & Mum said “I forgot to check my bag for beer cubes?”
I can normally work out what she’s trying to say but not this time so I asked her to think about it & maybe come up with a different word.  Turns out she meant teabags?!  She lost it laughing saying she hates beer (which is true) & never has anything cubed shaped in her bag & so “Where the *uck did that come from?”

Mum said “If we’re ever struggling for money, don’t hesitate to sell my vagina!”  She meant jewellery, though I have no idea what jewellery she thinks she has that is worth selling lol.

“I thought about having a Bacardi when we came out of prison today” Meaning hospital

“Aren’t electric blankets great?  When we used to use hot water bottles, you’d wake up at 1am & have to bake another cake!”  Or maybe ‘boil another kettle’?

Trying to say pen went “Peg, knife, pen!”

“Every duck, every bird, every cat I’ve ever had ate chicken!”

“When we get home I want a biscuit & a cup of red tea full of retirement bits!”

Mum trying to tell me that she’s putting the water spray bottle on the bottom shelf of the cupboard.
“I’m putting the fizzy on the ground floor!”

Mum showed me her vest & said “That’s not thyroid is it?”  I think she meant thermal.

An ‘on fire’ day consisted of:
The wheels on the car are wings, her pills are pads, kitchen towels are tea towels & the shed is a ship!  All pretty close, oh and soup for lunch & she insist we need forks!

Apparently we have a swimming pool in our kitchen?  Oh no it’s the fridge.
Our magnesium tablets this morning were ‘petals’ & Mum doesn’t want to try the new (nutty) Kinder Choco sweets cos they have ‘bones’ in them!

 

Before having hearing problems

I remember taking Mum for her first hearing test in April 2016 to see if she had a hearing problem or if her dementia had progressed to affecting her comprehension.  She came out over the moon to be told no hearing problem & I came out gutted that it was another symptom.  We both needed a drink, she celebrated while I commiserated Lol.

Watching 8 of 10 Cats.  Countdown begins but Mum didn’t hear the ‘L’ in ‘Clocks’.
She’s almost laughing harder than she did watching the Minions movie earlier!

Mum said “What’s this on tv?”
I said “”Miss Marple”
Mum said “She’s an arsehole!”

Listening to Prince ‘I would Die For You’ & Mum is singing “Apple Duck For You!”

In the car listening to Dr Hook’s ‘Cover of the Rolling Stone’ & Mum has changed “Get your picture” to “kiss your sister”.
She then said “I had to get your Dad’s help years ago to arrange this song.  We had to organise the song so that Alan (her son) could sing it!”

I told Mum we needed to find some Gerbera’s in the shop.  Mum said “Gerbils?  Aren’t they sweets, sucky sweets?”  Haha suck a gerbil!

Talking to Faith about her brother Josh who mum hadn’t yet met.  Sharon showed mum a photo & mum said, “He’s very handsome!”  Faith said “Yes my brother is handsome” mum said “Your brother’s a greyhound?”

Mum went from the lounge to the kitchen to get me a mini bottle of red wine & peanuts from the cupboard.  She came back with peanuts, a giant eraser & a dictaphone!!!

I put some cheesy shapes on a plate for Mum but she heard “Cheesy shits!”

Mum asked me to put her earrings in.  I said “Move a bit closer.”  She giggled & said “I thought you said take your clothes off!”

I said to Mum “Shall we go get washed & then do breakfast?”  Mum said “I’ve been over it twice in my head & I can’t have heard you correctly.  I heard ‘Shall we go get washed & then do *uck face but my face isn’t a *ucker!”

 

Relentlessly exhausting

I’ve been struggling with some physical problems that have been causing me a severe lack of sleep.  A few nights ago I gave Mum half a sleeping tablet to try & help us both.  It didn’t help her sleep.  It made her delirious, climbing down the stairs (which she generally doesn’t do once she’s gone up to bed) to tell me she was worried because she had already been down 10 times & I had been out for hours (I had been in the lounge for the 2 hours since she went to bed) and then to deal with her still being awake all night.
Today I am physically incapacitated due to skeletal problems.  No sleep last night due to my pain, Mum of course had a good night.  Irony is the one of the baines of my life lol.
Half an hour to get my body out of bed whilst still yelling in pain etc.  That’s fine, I can deal with muscular pain, however, Mum dealing with it is something completely different.  She thinks when I’m not feeling well that I’m grumpy with her because she forgets that I’m not feeling well.  Finally she goes to bed & I decide a full sleeping tablet will shortly give her a good sleep, keep her safe & give me a break to just ‘be’ with my pain but no!
She’s just  half way down the stairs, after being up there for 2 hours, delirious, wants a Bacardi & coke, why am I home & why am I not out?
i had plans today & several ideas & offers of plans tonight.  My body not allowing me to partake is one thing but to then not be able to chill, recharge & just ‘be’ while I’m not feeling okay is another.
I don’t mean or want to sound negative.  I will ride & breathe through it as I do.  Just good to share sometimes that it’s never ending, nobody to break that cycle for me, cook me dinner, pour my wine, rub my feet.  I’m trying to do really well at having my time for me away from home but actually what’s missing is my time for me (being pampered) in my own home I guess.
Just my ramblings for Easter 2018 :-))))