In addition to being a dedicated father, my father is a dedicated spouse. He is working so hard to take care of my mother during her decline into Alzheimer's. My biggest fear is not that something will happen to my mom -- I've read about the downward spiral and am expecting it to be bad. Death by Alzheimer's is a slow death by a thousand cuts, with minor and major insults and injuries along the way. This weekend, my mom got in a car and drove off to visit her friend. She isn't supposed to drive, but she did. She was lost for an hour, which caused panic in my father. No one was hurt and no damage was done except to my father's nerves.
My biggest fear is that taking care of the woman he loves will kill him, wound his heart, break his spirit. What they were looking forward to as their golden years will be much less, marked with challenges and difficulty. I hope he takes care of himself.
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