Lost Puppy

Today was a good day.  Mom got up at 6:30 and I welcomed her to the day.  After getting our day started, getting some laundry going and having a snack, we headed out in the car to do some errands.  Going somewhere is Mom’s absolute favorite thing at this point. 

So, we dropped some things off to my daughter, dropped something in the mailbox at the post office, and then to a store for a return.  Our next stop was a follow-up to some arrangements I have made to prepare for Mom’s passing.

A few months ago when Mom came down with pneumonia, I realized that I need to get my ducks in a row in case Mom would take a sudden turn for the worse.  The first thing I did was to contact a local funeral home to set up a file for Mom.  Like Daddy and others in our family, including me, Mom has donated her body to UC Medical upon her death.  Although we don’t do the normal funeral thing, we do need a funeral home involved to provide the transportation to UC and they also facilitate the death certificate and the death notices.  That may seem very straightforward but it’s not.  Mom was adopted and, not only was she adopted but her name was changed at the time of the adoption.  When requesting death certificates, if all pieces of data are not perfect, it can throw a wrench in the works.  So, to avoid issues, today we dropped off a copy of Mom’s birth certificate and a copy of her adoption papers.  Needless to say, they were thrilled to have them!

I truly believe that God puts me in situations that allow me to do what needs to be done.  At the same time that I was contacting the funeral home, my son-in-law invited us to an open house at his place of work.  Part of the open house was a fair of service providers that might be helpful for the associates attending.  As I was walking Mom through, I found a hospice booth.  My husband walked on with Mom while I had a wonderful conversation with the hospice folks and consequently was able to get Mom on file with them.  If anything happens now, I need to just call them and they will jump in to help me care for Mom, whether it be getting her through a critical illness or end of life.

I have these things in place for my peace of mind but as I was saying, Mom and I were running around this morning.  After the funeral home, we had a great lunch out and went to the grocery store before heading home.

All went well until just before dinner when suddenly Mom was like a lost puppy!  She was wandering around unsure of where she was and unsure of what to do.  When called to dinner, she asked, “Where do I sit?”  After dinner, she again was looking around and asked my husband if we (collectively) live here.

That quick, that lost.  That’s dementia!