Here's an excerpt from our book "Dementia-Mama-Drama" now available on Amazon Books.
Mama's Nursing Home was quarantined for nine days due to a flu virus outbreak. It was nine loooong daze! The few activities that had been scheduled stopped altogether. It left Mama with even MORE time on her hands and even LESS time being around others. This did not stop Douglass and me from visiting, even though visitors were "strongly discouraged.” We wore masks, just like the staff and residents. It looked and felt odd and Mama hated every minute of wearing a mask.
Mama: I had a crazy dream last night.
Douglass: What did you dream about?
Mama: I dreamt you got married.
Vin: Really? How was the wedding?
Mama: I said to you in my dream, what the hell are you getting married for? The three of us
are already so happy together.
Under my breath I said to Douglass “we told her we’re married, she must’ve forgot.”
Vin: Oh so now you're saying you're HAPPY? You
never say you’re happy, that's a first.
Mama: Yeah I'll be HAPPY when I can go home!
Mama always talked about going home. Like many with Alzheimer's, she’d repeatedly say “I wanna go home, I wanna go home.” I'd tell her she sounded like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz,” she'd laugh and change the subject. I was never sure what she meant by home. Was it where she was born, her last apartment or New York? I always got a different answer, so I never knew.
Douglass: So you’re not happy?
Mama: Well I’ll be happy when I can at least take this damn mask off and hear everything that you're saying. Everything is muffled and I can’t breathe. Everybody is wearing masks in this place, it’s crazy. I can’t take this anymore. Do me a favor, take this damn mask off me already and hand me my lipstick.
