It is so shocking to see how much his illness had progressed everytime we see him. We have decided that we are going to visit him as much as we can since we don't know how much longer he will last.
Clarence no longer recongizes us. His memory is spotty at best. Sometimes he will have a break through and know who we are, but those moments are getting rarer. The hardest part is knowing what a fiesty, vibrant little man he was and seeing him now.
Clarence and I had a lot of fun over the years. He's always been cheerful and a peacemaker. He has always liked to make people laugh. Some of these characteristics show up still. He'll say funny things to get us to laugh. I don't know if that makes it easier or harder to deal with these changes in him.
Sometimes I feel like we are already mourning him because the man we all knew is pretty much gone. He's like a little child that you have to comfort and appease. He's just been on my mind heavily today. We will be making monthly trips to Eagar since we don't know if we will have six months or six years with him. I do want my children to be able to hug him and tell him that they love him. Everyone needs to know that.
I don't know what we are all supposed to learn from this. There are probably a ton of lessons for each of us. I just hope we learn them soon and remember them always.
Clarence with Breinn, Stormy, Cassidy, Thomas & Nathan
4 comments:
Linda I am sorry to hear about Clarence. That has got to be so hard. Your kids will always love him because he is so special. Even if he changes.
I know how this feels, it sucks. That's good that you guys will be visiting him more. Its hard now but in the end you will be glad that you did.
I pray for 6 months. It took my Grandma 10 years and it was they were the hardest of our family's life! He is a wonderful man and all will be restored! He will always have that feisty sense of humor! My prayers are with you and Mom!
Oh it is such a hard disease to watch progress. My Grandma also had Alzheimers. It was some rough years. She also was in an assisted living home, we tried to visit as much as possible, but it just was hard to see her like that! When she passed we all realized our memories of her were not in the nursing home and the visits were not as important as the years we shared with her... when she was well & herself.
My heart goes out to your family:)
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