Nan is bleedin' wonderful for her age. Even last year we thought she was on her way out, with blood clots throughout her body and yet she still came back and carries on going. I swear she must run on Duracell, or something.
She puts many of us to shame, she walks into Herne bay every morning to keep herself fit, although she needs to do this with the aid of a trolley as she has zero balance without support. However, she zooms down the hill quicker than me!
My wonderful mother looks after her by cooking her lunch everyday, then once a week she needs assistance showering, mostly because of the balance issue. I digress, though, as the reason I'm writing this post is because over the last few years we have noticed the Alzheimer's set in. Old age and Alzheimer's are terrible. She's shrunk from 5"4 to 4" nothing for a start, not to mention all the illnesses and body issues that follow with it.
We're lucky with my nan, in the scheme of things her mind is wonderful although over the past years she has definitely become more forgetful. She struggles to remember conversations from 15 minutes ago, and yet can regail you with stories of her childhood, the war and stories of when my dad was a schoolboy. It's upsetting to see when she struggles to remember you've planned to visit her, even when you've only spoken an hour beforehand.
When my family are on holiday (As they are at the moment) I end up caring for my Nan, this year with the help of my Auntie Sue.
Every time I go across to her house I get the same stories, the same conversations and the same questions asked, she gets fretty over the simplest of things. I have to be mindful not to get irritated and annoyed as the routine can get very frustrating, very quickly. (Especially when she brings up the fact I haven't had children, and my mother had all ready had my brother by my age...That one is a regular moment about once every 20 minutes, amongst other poignant remarks) I know she never means it in a bad way, I think she feels she's got limited time left and would like to see me settled. I keep on repeating that I'm getting there but the sproglet idea is a loooong way off still.
I wash her hair for her, and set it into curlers once a week, and it's only when she sits there in the chair, smiling at me in the mirror, I remember that I'm so very lucky to have the time with her, even when she's driving me stir crazy! I know she's been on borrowed time for quite a few years now.
Today she came back down on her stairlift to give me a present. I was shocked, she'd made a scrapbook of when I was MHB In 2006 and wanted to give it to me, in the folder there was every photo and mention of me from every local paper in the area. Needless to say I ended up in a flood of tears by the sweetness shown.
I'm very blessed to have my Nan at 28. Most friends and family's grandparents passed years ago. Long may she live past a ton, I just hope her memory stays as it is... X
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