I rarely talk about my personal life on KB, and that's chiefly because I don't like talking about my personal life.
But I want to talk about my Mom.
She's 78 and about four months ago she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. She's still as spry and active as she was 20 years ago, and the doctor said it has been coming on for about 10 years, and, like many people with this terrible condition, she has hidden it from us as things have progressed.
I wasn't exactly surprised by the diagnosis, since I could tell her memory was slipping for a couple of years. I simply chalked it up to her growing older. At this point, she's around the 60% mark. She remembers everyone and remembers events, but she can't remember recent details. For example, I call her about twice a week, and the other day when she picked up the phone she said, "Barbara, we haven't spoken in ages." We had talked about three days previously.
I'm blessed by the fact that two of my brothers live about a mile from where she lives, which is the house they bought in the early 1970s and where we all grew up. One has two daughters, and the other has two sons, and they, my sisters-in-law, and the nieces and nephews all come over very frequently yo help her out.
Okay, as long as I'm being self-revelatory, I should mention that my Dad died the day after Christmas. While the official cause of death was COVID-19, he had been in poor health for a couple of years, and he had been steadily declining. Even if he hadn't contracted the virus, he likely wouldn't have lived beyond another 4-6 months at most.
I've been close to both my Mom and Dad throughout my life. My were parents were an "opposites attract" couple. My Dad was a calm, low-key guy. He was always around, and always willing to help us or anyone else with a smile. My Mom, on the other hand, was an extremely outgoing and active person. She has, without exaggeration, about 100 close friends, and she's very funny, and a great listener.
When I flew back to attend my Dad's funeral (they didn't have a wake because COVID restrictions at the time didn't allow it), and it was hard to tell how much my Mom understood what was going on, and how she was accepting and grieving. At the funeral Mass, she burst into uncontrollable sobbing when they played "Amazing Grace" (and I totally lost it, too), but at the cemetery (they held the "graveside service" indoors since it was about 20 degrees and several inches of snow had fallen the night before), she was very stoic. Since my Dad served in the Army, they had several officers there, and they played "Taps" and did the flag-folding thing. I totally lost it again, and I was glad I didn't wear mascara). But my Mom just sat their smiling.
Meanwhile, we still talk about twice a week, and in a strange way, we never run out of things to talk about, since with her weakened short-term memory, our conversations go in circles (how are you, how's work, how are your friends, what's the weather been like, and then back to how are you, etc.
Okay, now I'm going to quickly post this before I change my mind...