It was hard to leave Mom tonight. She is really struggling with her memory, and it makes her understandably frustrated and angry, which unfortunately gets turned on the people that surround her.
I worked all day at my other job, and stopped by Mom's on my way home - around 7:30. The nurse told me she had just gone to her room. When I walked in, she was in her bathroom 'Hi, Mom. How are you?'
She called out from the bathroom "I'm in here. Who is it?"
When she came out , I said 'It's me.'
It was strange, but she was looking at me as if she didn't recognize me. There were long pauses and she said "You look like...you look nice. All dressed up for Christmas" (I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap.)
'How are you?'
"I'm about to call the police, that's what I am." She was angry, and was describing to me that they had her walking up and down stairs for 8 - then 5 hours straight, down all these hallways and floors, and keep moving her room around. "And I'm not crazy. And I don't deserve to be treated that way."
I sat down and re-started the Mona Lisa smile movie for the 3rd day in a row. Mom said "Oh good - I've never seen this before." She went on and on, was very weepy "I'm not lying to you. I leave my room and then everything moves. It is very scary."
It certainly would be. I just sat for awhile, and kept responding to her complaints with comments about the nurses being there to help her and keep her safe. After about an hour I told her I needed to get home.
"I know you want me to tell you I'll be ok, but I'm not. I'm not crazy, and I'm not lying to you. I mean it."
I watched the movie for a little while longer, then gave her a hug and told her it would be ok. On relection...even I have a hard time buying that. It's really sad and scary sometimes. She was almost defeated in her tone, and she just said "thank you for the coffee."
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