Edmonton Blues – Pt 2

So, my latest trip to Edmonton was not off to a good start. But, I am always the eternal optimist. I went back to Mom’s nursing home on Sunday with a determination that I was going to have a nice visit with my Mom.

To hell with Dementia. We were going to have a good visit. I left my friend, Pat’s place at 1:00 in the afternoon after having a very nice breakfast with him and Barb. We had Darth Vader pancakes and sausages. Pat is a little obsessed with Star Wars. So, for Christmas, his daughter gave him a Darth Vader Waffle Maker.

The sad part is that the end results looked NOTHING like this. They were still quite tasty, though.

After breakfast, Pat and I had a nice relaxing morning watching BBC Earth on the TV. That took me until almost 1:00 when I packed up and headed out to go and see Mom.

I got to Mom’s place in about 40 minutes. Mom was still asleep but, I was able to rouse her this time. The staff there were able to get her into a wheelchair and we were able to go down to the atrium in the facility. We had a nice long chat about life in general.

We were then able to call my cousins in the Netherlands who were absolutely THRILLED to speak to Mom. Mom was overjoyed to be able to converse in Dutch again. So they spoke for about ten minutes and then it was time for my cousins to call it a night. Edmonton is 8 hours behind the Netherlands.

After we finished chatting with them, I then got back on my tablet and called up Alex. Alex and Mom were able to have a nice chat for about 5 minutes.

Mom’s descent into Dementia seems to be speeding up. Her short term memory is gone completely. She cannot remember anything beyond what is entrenched in her long term memory. Those memories are from when she was a girl in the Netherlands. I am fortunate, however, that she still knows her family. I don’t know how long that will last, though.

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end. So, reluctantly after a couple of hours, I had to take Mom back up to her floor and get ready to head out. The wave of sadness and fear took hold of her and shook her with a vengeance. She begged me to stay or to take her with me.

She was so scared that she was going to be by herself. Fortunately, there were 8 nursing staff who were congregated by her room and as I gestured to them, I reassured Mom that she was not alone. These amazing people were going to take good care of her until I was able to get out again.

She wasn’t convinced, but, I could see that she was not as agitated as she was even 5 minutes prior.

So, I was able to make my way out of the facility and made my way back to the airport. My flight home was uneventful… thank goodness. Enough of an emotional rollercoaster this weekend. Didn’t need anything else to add to it.