When I found out my aunt had Alzheimers it was like a puzzle was solved. My aunt was like a mother figure to me. I had grown up without my mom and she had filled that void, and many others. In addition, she was like a grandmother to my two children, and the moment that they came to love her, as I did was a Disney ,"Circle of Life," one for me.
First thing I remember was our nightly calls stopped. I explained that away by the crazy/busy life she led. My uncle used to joke that the only way he could tell if she was home was by peering over his paper on their porch, and seeing if her car was there. Between the church, girl scouts, book and gardening clubs, community service and being a faculty wife she juggled it all.
During one of my annual visits I began to take notice of the repetition of our conversations, some unexplainable behavior, and then came a huge error with an Easter meal.
Even just recalling these incidents somehow seems almost disrespectful to her memory? Yet, I also believe had she cognitively been aware of what was happening to her brain, and could somehow step aside from it, she would have embraced it- full on. She would embrace it full on just as she had every other thing in her life. And believe me, she would do it all with effortless grace.
