jmgoyder

wings and things

Jun 25

Dina

by jmgoyder

I wrote about Dina from Chaos to Clear in previous posts, describing how this wonder woman helped me to declutter and reorganise the spaces inside and outside this house. The process was a twice-a-week visit from Dina, over a period of several months. She/we even tackled the sheds despite the possible presence of asbestos.

IMG_1451_2

During this process, Dina and I became friends. She visited Anthony with me (where we sorted a huge box of old photos and another box of old paperwork), and she even visited Anthony last week when I was away in Perth!

Dina also supported me in a face-to-face meeting with the managers at the nursing home about my desire to continue to visit various residents despite having resigned. Her presence at this meeting ensured that permission would be granted, and gave me the confidence to state that I was already a family friend of many of the residents.

Anyway, this week I suddenly found myself a bit overwhelmed again with a new accumulation of unopened mail, the dregs of clutter I was supposed to have eradicated/given away, and Ming’s stuff here and there untidying my newly tidy house. So I emailed Dina asking her to come back and help with these last jobs.

Then – the next morning – before Dina even had a chance to reply, I emailed her again to retract my request and that I could do it by myself but I needed to be accountable to someone.

Dina emailed me back saying yes and to just imagine she was there looking over my shoulder. So for two days now, I have been reporting back to her about what I’ve done, and she has been encouraging me (all of this via email). This kind of accountability has worked wonders in terms of motivation!

Depression (yes, I have it) sometimes means that the person afflicted wastes days worrying, and nights dreaming, about tasks that only take an hour or so. The fear of those tasks is, of course, irrational, but when you are in the throes of depression and/or anxiety, even the simplest of tasks can be overwhelming.

I haven’t admitted to many, including Dina, that I battle with depression but I’m sure she realises and I so appreciate her kindness and patience with me. And her incredible support beyond the call of duty!

Who would have known that when I simply googled “chaos” I would find such a beautiful friend. Thanks, Dina.

Australia blogging Embarrassing moments Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage nursing homes Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia

37 Comments »
Jun 19

These boots were made for walking ….

by jmgoyder

IMG_4554

I have just returned from a delightful couple of days in Perth with a wonderful friend. She flew down from up north and I drove up from down south and we stayed at a beautiful resort, shared some fine wine, extraordinary pizzas, watched a very complicated movie twice (because we didn’t ‘get it’ the first time), and enjoyed chef-styled breakfasts each morning.

It was brilliant! We each had various big-city things we had to do so yesterday we went our different ways for a few hours and I visited my friend, Rose, at Dimario http://dimario.com.au

Dimario is a shop that is close to my heart for many reasons (for example, I love boots). But the main reason is that several years ago, when Anthony wasn’t so ill, we walked in and I fell in love with a pair of boots that were extremely expensive and extremely beautiful. Ants and I had to go back to our hotel room to mull it over and, despite being a rather scroogy careful-with-money person back then, he wanted me to have those boots.

From then on, whenever we went to Perth (which was only once a year), Anthony would actually suggest going to Dimario. Rose and Nikki would welcome us like old friends and Ants would watch as I tried the various boots on, usually convincing me to get the better, more elegant and expensive ones.

Then, one year, it became too hard for him to get out of the car; another year, it became too difficult for me to take him from the hotel to the shop, so I went by myself; another year, he was in a hospital in Perth having his Parkinson’s Disease medications reassessed; another year Ming came with me and cloned Anthony in picking out the best pair of boots; another year we didn’t go to Perth at all as Anthony’s health had deteriorated too much. I guess that was around four years ago and my memory of this phase in our lives blurs a bit around the edges.

To see Rose again yesterday, despite the fact that it’s probably been a couple of years now since I visited her gorgeous shop, was incredible. I was greeted with a hug!

Rose: And how is your beautiful husband?

Me: He’s in a nursing home now but he still remembers you and I need to buy some boots so I can wear them to the nursing home and remind him again.

Rose: I will always look after you; what about these?

Me: Not me – I rather like those….

Rose: And how is your beautiful son?

Me: Still beautiful. What about those embroidered boots?

Rose: They’re on sale – let me see if we have your size.

Rose then told me that Nikki had retired but had a pair of the same boots and I asked her to give Nikki our love. She said she would, then, when the boots were a perfect fit, Rose discounted them even further, I bought them and we had another hug as I left.

After that, I picked my friend up and we went back to the resort. We shared a mutual admiration of our purchases then began (again!) to watch the stupid movie and order pizza.

Today, I dropped my friend at the airport and headed home. We are going to meet like this every few months; it’s a wonderful arrangement and, even though she and I have lost touch on and off over the decades, we are still the same buddies we were as teenagers.

And I can’t wait to show Anthony my new boots tomorrow!

IMG_4561

Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Teenagers

57 Comments »
Jun 16

Hugs

by jmgoyder

Now that I have resigned my part-time job as life-style assistant in the dementia wing of the nursing home, it has been an absolute joy to continue to visit the women I’ve become so fond of.

The hurt has transmogrified (oh how much I love that word!) into the hugging thing and, this afternoon, I visited and kept it simple.

We just did a lot of hugging.

blogging Embarrassing moments Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage nursing homes Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia

26 Comments »
Jun 14

Anthony’s ‘girlfriend’

by jmgoyder

There is a lovely woman (I will call her Mary) who works as supervisor during afternoon shifts at the nursing home. She and Anthony have such a rapport now that his slow smile stretches into a grin when she enters his room to give him his 4pm meds. The three of us now joke that she is his ‘girlfriend’.

Today was no exception:

Mary: Hi Anthony, I’ve got your pills.

Me: Ants, it’s your girlfriend!

Anthony: Hi … (smiling)

Me: It’s Mary, Ants.

Anthony: Hi Mary.

Mary: Here are your pills, Anthony.

She and I then got chatting while Anthony swallowed his pills (it sometimes takes awhile). I had my one remaining PhD student’s nearly-completed thesis on the table and was checking it for typos. Mary was curious so I told her I used to work at the university and that I’d done a PhD too years back and turned it into a book about Alzheimer’s disease. She asked if she could read it so I gave her the copy I have in Anthony’s top drawer. Then she got called away.

A few moments later, I asked Ants if the pills had gone down.

Me: Have you swallowed them?

Anthony: No.

Me: What? Do you need water? Open your mouth. Yes, they’ve gone down, your mouth is empty.

Anthony: No.

Me: What do you mean ‘no’?

Anthony: Ring the … girlfriend. She might have them.

Me (laughing and hugging him): I don’t need to ring her – she’s here! And the pills have gone down, trust me!

I continued to read the thesis when all of a sudden Anthony belched loudly. I put my pen down and glared at him.

Me: How dare you burp in my presence!

Anthony: I’ll have you know … I’m whatshername’s boyfriend.

I find it absolutely amazing that, despite the confusion of Anthony’s dementia, his sense of irony and humour can be so extraordinarily spot on!

After laughing my head off, I took my leave with the usual excuse of ‘just going to get some groceries’.

Anthony: Don’t be too long.

Me: I won’t and just remember I am your real girlfriend.

Anthony: No you’re not – you’re my wife.

It was a very happy drive home.

Another irony is that Mary has borrowed my book which is based on a similar experience from my years-ago nursing days. The way Mary and Anthony interact parallels my experience with a patient I called ‘Joe’, whose refrain became the title of the book “We’ll be married in Fremantle.”

Perhaps the fact that I no longer work in the dementia wing is, despite the difficulty of having had to make this decision, a good thing. As I am now a lady of leisure again, I have much more time to write about the subject of dementia which is so close to my heart and has been for over 20 years. Now, of course, it’s even closer with Anthony in its grip.

My mother and I had a laugh on the phone today because she had visited Anthony in the morning and, after an hour or so, he suddenly said, “Are you going home now?” Having been dismissed, she gathered her knitting and left after giving him a hug.

Me: How come you asked my mother to go? She was hurt.

Anthony: I didn’t.

Me: You asked her if she was going home and she took the hint!

Anthony: She’s not you.

Okay, so my mother is out of the competition but there is still Mary to worry about – haha!

Family Friendship Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage My published writing nursing homes Parkinson's disease dementia

34 Comments »
Jun 14

Still Anthony

by jmgoyder

A couple of years ago I read Lisa Genova’s novel, Still Alice and, over the last couple of days, Anthony and I watched the movie. For those who haven’t seen or read the story, Still Alice is about how a linguistics professor, Alice, is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 50 and how she and the family cope.

I suppose it was a strange choice of film to watch with a husband who has Parkinson’s disease dementia (and was probably a contributing factor in the grief I felt the other evening). But yesterday, as he and I watched the final scenes, he suddenly became quite engaged in Alice’s deterioration, and asked me what was wrong with her. I keep the dvd controller close so I can pause whatever we are watching whenever Anthony says anything.

Me: She has Alzheimer’s disease.
Anthony: It’s worse now, isn’t it.
Me: Yes.

I had paused the film at a particularly stark close-up of Alice’s confused expression (Julianne Moore is brilliant as the character Alice). Anthony and I both looked at her face for a few moments then I hit the play button again and we watched silently as the movie came to an end.

Unlike Alice, Anthony has not had to experience the creeping horror of knowing he has dementia. He still doesn’t know and I don’t tell him because I don’t want him to be afraid or embarrassed. So, when he asks where his mother is, or how she is (this is a frequent question) I just say that she is fine.

Anthony: Is she at home?
Me: Yes.
Anthony: Is Ming there too?
Me: Yes, and they’re both fine.
Anthony: So when are we going to Golden Valley?
Me: When the weather gets warmer, Ants. It’s too cold today.

Anthony’s mother died over 30 years ago and Golden Valley was his childhood home so the only ‘real’ aspect to these conversations is Ming.

I’ve recovered from my grief episode of the other evening and, since watching Still Alice, realise how lucky we are that Anthony has never had to go through that fear-of-dementia experience because it has just happened, insidiously, slowly, kindly even. He doesn’t know he has dementia; he still recognises all of us; there is still a lot of laughter and Anthony’s one-liners are hilarious.

Anthony: You need to brush your hair.
Me: I just did!
Anthony: Do it again, it’s not right.
Me: I’ll shave your head if you keep hassling me!
Anthony: Feisty!

Still Anthony.

IMG_4201

Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage nursing homes Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Teenagers Wings

30 Comments »
Jun 7

Paperwork phobia

by jmgoyder

I have a bit of a paperwork phobia.

I don’t go to the post office anymore because it is too scary. Ming usually collects the mail on his way home and brings it to me in my writing room. I politely thank him or else say:

TAKE IT AWAY, TAKE IT AWAY, TAKE IT AWAY – JUST EAT IT!

I don’t quite know why I have this phobia because most of these letters are relatively harmless, even innocuous, and I pay most of the bills online because I don’t have an email phobia (luckily). It would be good to admit that my paperwork phobia was due to my objection to so many trees being cut down to create all of this mail but, even though I agree with myself here, it’s not that. It’s more to do with the envelopes and what might be inside them.

So the letter(s) sit on my desk briefly, threateningly, until I throw carefully place them, unopened, into the box of things-to-do.

Once the box is full, I take it to the nursing home and place it on Anthony’s bed. We hug and I explain it is a ‘paperwork day’ and that I need his moral support. It is only then that I have the courage to open all of the envelopes, file anything important and trash the rest. This usually takes about 10 minutes.

Okay so this is a bit tongue-in-cheek but also very true. I literally can’t seem to do the paperwork unless Anthony is by my side and, once it’s done, I am so happy that I get a bit frolicky and this gets a smile.

I also have a bit of a phone phobia ….

blogging Embarrassing moments Family Friendship Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Wings

26 Comments »
Jun 4

Anthony’s room

by jmgoyder

Every day I look forward to going in to the nursing home to be with Anthony. His room has now become home to me; Ming throws his big self onto the bed, my mother knits, friends and relatives visit us here, and staff are welcoming with cups of tea and jokes. I love being in this room.

Family Friendship Grief Happiness LOVE STORY Marriage nursing homes Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia

13 Comments »
May 30

Today

by jmgoyder

Okay so I’ve been reading Tolle and trying to do all of that ‘being in the now’ stuff and I think I have a better handle on things.

In dementia there seems to be an unhappening; today is simply today, this minute, second, moment is just that. Memories are painful and confusing and the future is bleak. Now becomes all-important.

So today I visited my friends in the dementia cottage with a completely different attitude. As an ex-staff member I felt the wonderful freedom of just being a visitor!

I did a whole lot of hugging today.

blogging Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY nursing homes Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia

20 Comments »
May 29

Just being there

by jmgoyder

One of the things I’ve learned over the last year or so is that I don’t need to do anything, go somewhere, think of an activity, plan an event, force Anthony to converse, figure out how to get loved ones to visit him more, stress myself wretched with ideas of how to make his life better … I just have to be there.

So that is what I do now – an undoing really – a breath-saving realisation of how simple it is. I sit next to this beautiful husband of mine, with my hand on his shoulder, or stroking his head, watching television, talking about the past, sharing secrets, rejoicing in our son, Ming, smiling at each other, joking about silly things ….

We are so conditioned to do, do, do! It is such a great relief to simply be there, to embrace the long stretches of silence when Anthony is dozing, to quietly rejoice in the fact that our love has not been diminished by his disease, to just be.

Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage nursing homes Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia

40 Comments »
May 11

Unfinished….

by jmgoyder

IMG_4550

Such a strange realisation!

An ‘aha!’ moment!

The inability to get to the ‘finish line’ or the ‘punch line’ was making me utterly miserable (as well as my inability to understand/implement Tolle’s NOW concept, cope with a depressive episode, watch myself grieve for Anthony in a way that seemed premature).

But it wasn’t any of those bracketed BIG things that were bothering me; it was the fact that the few remnants of weeks and weeks of decluttering, finding history, reorganising the house/farm etc. were still here.

It was the remnants!

Old books, doilies, Anthony’s school report from when he was little, old photos of my dad when he was young, bark paintings from our years in Papua New Guinea, a thousand buttons, a pile of costume jewellery, a silk corset and bra wrapped in newspaper for 100 years, bits of china that would be valuable if not cracked, old instruction manuals from before I was born, and a whole lot of bits and pieces that must have had sentimental value for someone before Anthony was born, and maybe even before Gar, his mother, was born.

So today I began this last phase by going to the dump with Ming and unloading a very full ute-load of rubbish; then I proceeded to use a knife to cut up a very big carpet mat underneath my bed (it had to be cut up to be manageable) and Ming helped me. The dust that came out from beneath that ancient carpet was justification enough to get rid of it – wonderful!

And now I have contacted the heritage park people to come over for a final browse, I am going to advertise the gramophone and other items online (once I figure out how), and I’ve already boxed up historical material for the relative who is interested.

Every single photo/photo album in now in Anthony’s cupboard so I just have to do the scanning bit by bit by bit whilst being with him.

And my point in this ridiculously self-indulgent post?

I was stuck at the ‘unfinish line’ and now I’m not. Full steam ahead!

Very grateful for comments and am going to reply to them now. I don’t even ‘get’ why I had such a downer when my new neighbour/hairdresser, Camille, made my hair a wildish red, I met my beautiful mama for lunch on Friday and laughed my head off, met with my best friend Tony yesterday for lunch and Ming bought me Dylan Moran tickets for my Mother’s day present – so many great things.

IMG_4552

Oh and Dina is coming for dinner in a couple of weeks (well, she is coming to cook risotto in her thermomix) so I better get finished with these remnants asap.

My conversation with Ming a few seconds ago:

Me: I’m over my blah finally, Ming.

Ming: How’d you do that?

Me: Got a few things done I guess.

Ming: Jobs, jobs, jobs!

Me: Well we had a lovely time at the dump today didn’t we? [At the dump Ming had yelled out, ‘Mum, this is glorious! We’re not fighting! What a beautiful dump run!’]

Ming: It’s probably due to Sontime.

Mmmm – that is definitely an unfinished conversation!

blogging Embarrassing moments Family Friendship Grief Happiness Humour joy LOVE STORY Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Wings

24 Comments »
«Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Blog at WordPress.com.