Last week Mom was able to move to a room in Clare Bridge, the area of the home that is for the more advanced stages of Alzheimer’s/dementia. Good for Mom but sad because that meant that another resident had finished her journey and passed on.
I wasn’t there when they moved her but evidently she saw her things passing by and immediately jumped in to help. She’s so happy to have her room there where she can go to it whenever she wants!
I visited the morning of the move and must have arrived shortly after she had settled in. I had my granddaughter and our little Hurricane with me and when we walked through the door, the residents, including Mom, were playing noodle ball. What’s noodle ball? Well, you blow up a balloon and use those foam noodles that you take to the pool to bat the balloon around. It’s great for stimulating eye/hand coordination and working the minds of the folks there. You can imagine Hurricane’s reaction… It was his first visit and it took a few minutes for him to warm up but he was soon playing noodle ball right along with them!
After the noodle ball was over, Mom took us the few steps down the hall to her room. She was so proud of it! Just pleased as punch!
Yesterday I visited again and, as is my habit, I went through her drawers to see if there was anything of concern. I found a half full snack bag she had hidden away and gave it to her to munch on while I continued to look through the drawers. At first glance, things looked okay but as I looked deeper, I found her purse was full of pretzels and a great big cookie! The RNA and I had a good laugh about that as she took the purse out to empty it.
I also noticed that Mom had tucked various pieces of clothing in the drawers. My nose doesn’t work too well but I suddenly got a whiff of something and as I worked my way through the clothing, I found an obviously soiled shirt – good thing my husband wasn’t there because the smell wasn’t pleasant.
Once my foray into Mom’s dresser was finished, we headed out to the hall to do some walking. Mom wanted to go outside but I had to tell her no because of the extreme heat we’re experiencing. So, we just kept walking around the hall.
As we were walking, one of the gentlemen came out of his room carrying a toilet paper holder – the little springy thing that you put the roll of toilet paper on. He was telling me something about it with a big smile on his face. It’s so much fun to interact with the residents! I alerted one of the staff and she checked in his room to see if he had taken it from there. No, so into the next room to check. Sure enough, he stole it from someone else’s room. It must have been the day for it because I also learned that one of the other gentlemen had just pulled his entire toilet paper holder off the wall leaving a big hole in the drywall!
What fun! Never a dull moment, that’s for sure!
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