Laugh of the week: Mom wants to move to Oklahoma

My favorite "laugh so you don't cry" moment came from taking my mom to the cognitive testing where she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. When it came time to name as many animals as you can her first four were, "cat, dog, zebra, werewolf". And the best part is the tester's first language was not English and I'm not even 100% sure she caught the "were" part of werewolf, so my mom may have gotten that one in for free.

Even before my grandmother got Alzheimer’s , she lived in a HUD apt complex for seniors after my grandfather died . She was retired still in her late 60’s when she moved in to the brand new apartment . so was one of the younger people there . She talked about the old biddies who were jealous of her because the most desired widower was dating my grandmother for awhile . lol .
She lived in that apt until she was 90, and still referred to the other women as the old biddies as if she was always 68 .

My parents were on the same floor in a nursing home, In the weeks before my mother died she began seeing people who were not there. My mother was German, she came to the US after WWII.

One person in particular was a handsome German man who she described as having really good posture (I don't know where this came from). He was a younger man in his 70s (she was 94) and he came to visit her every day, She was delighted with his visits but told him she was married and her husband lived down the hall and to be careful not to be seen.

Several things but this week’s development is an elephant that is now spending time in the dining room at MC. She has been asking the staff what they are going to do about the elephant and all those dogs!!

The best one by far though is when she was up at 4 am one time when she lived with us and had all the lights going. I walk in and most of her belongings have been moved from her room to the guest room across the hall. I said, why did you move? And she says because the police are on the way (she had no access to a phone). So I ask why and she tells me she found a body in “that room”. Completely non-plussed by it but I guess needed to get out of the way. She lays down and goes back to sleep, at lunch she is mad as hell because somebody “took all of her stuff to another room!”

In the hospital one time, Dr’s came by for rounds. After telling them she was 21, when they walked away she said she was having a baby!

We embrace the humor in it all because we can’t survive it otherwise.

When I saw "She also said she wants to play" and before my eyes and brain moved to the next line, I thought, "What does she want to play: the harmonica?" I don't know why that was the first musical instrument that popped into my head.

Although it hasn't happened this week, my mom, who is age 97 1/2 and has cognitive problems that are worsening, still remembers that she doesn't like her first name and never has. Her name is one that has become very popular in recent years, so when I hear about babies that have it, I tell her, and I appreciate that this brings out this bit of her self: being annoyed with her parents for giving her the name. (She doesn't get mad.)

My 93 year old aunt who has lost her mobility and is in a care home, informed me one Saturday morning that after lunch she was off to the club as she was leading the sing song. One of the staff asked her what she was going to sing, she said 'Lili Marlene'. She has never been inside any club or our UK style bar (we call it a pub), it was beneath her.

Maybe she’d enjoy a cowboy (cowgirl?) hat 🤗 for playing home on the range

My Mom had Dementia. We were out one day and a woman we know stopped to say hi. She asked Mom "how are your kids doing? " Mom got indignant (not like her) and said "I don't have any children". I don't know who she thought I was. She had 4 children.

So many funny stories. One of the first: We had a really awful flood in our county. Mom's basement flooded. The caregiver had left early one day. I had told Mom many times about about the flood and left notes in the basement, on the stairs to the basement, on the kitchen counter by the phone to let her know I'd gotten someone to come fix it, and that they were very busy with worse problems than hers. She forgot and called a plumber two cities away because she thought a pipe was leaking. He came, told her it wasn't a plumbing issue and charged her for his time and gas to get there. She forgot again and called the city (at least it was the city she lived in) to turn off the water to the house. They did. Then she went to get a drink of water and there was none, so she called the police. They called me at work. All happened within one hour. That was the last day she was ever left alone for any amount of time.

“There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow”

Your mom is in a facility, right? I’ll bet this is what happened…. one of the streaming services was recently running musicals on a constant rotation nonstop…. Flower Drum Song, Carousel, Damn Yankees and both the 1950s & the newer Oklahoma! (with hottie Hugh Jackman). Someone at her MC was watching it. Became an earworm for her.