Good question.... My mother-in-law called me this morning sad and terribly upset because they have called in hospice for her mother who is in a nursing home. "Great Grandma" is going to be 93 on the 24th of this month!!!!! She has been in the nursing home for the past 5 years. Amazingly enough she has done pretty well considering she has advanced Alzheimer's.
Aaaahhh the "blessings" of a disease such as this. I know it can be so traumatic for some families but in Great Grandma's case it didn't present a problem until she was well into her 80's and since being in the nursing home it has been sort of a good thing. Many times Grandma thinks she's on a cruise (if you think about it all those long hallways with rooms on either side do kind of look like a ship's passageway), when we'd ask if she was eating her vegetables she'd smile and say "Oh, yes, they're feeding you all the time on these trips! The food is so good!"....no complaining about the fact that a meal of pureed grilled cheese, tomato soup, and red velvet cake results in three compartments of relatively the same texture and color sitting in front of you at dinner.
Overall she has seemed to tolerate her time there well, due, I'm sure in part, to the fact that time is pretty meaningless given her state of mind. She is able to carry on a conversation and especially likes to tell us about her younger life. We play games with her trying to get her to tell us the name of every dog she owned or the first boyfriend she ever had. Once we asked her if she fell in love with Grandpa when she first saw him and she actually blushed! I don't think she has suffered too greatly although I'm sure there are times when she is lonely. A few times she has asked us to take her home (when she remembers she's not there), or to please come and visit more (we only see her a couple of times a month) but overall she seems content and just happy to have visitors.
We will miss her of course and I worry most about her daughter (my mother in law).....can a daughter ever say goodbye to her mom without worry about how she'll get along without her? I'm thankful to know that when Great Grandma does leave she will also leave this crippled useless body that has held her prisoner for far too long and return to that man she loves ... the one whose memory can make her blush at the tender age of 93.
Sometimes maybe life isn't too short at all.....sometime, I'm sure I'll feel like I imagine she does....that it's entirely too long. We love you Grandma!
4 comments:
It sounds as if the nursing home has been a fairly good experience for her. I wish my residents thought they were on a cruise! I am sorry to hear that her health has a taken a turn for the worst, but we are lucky to have an understanding of death and the plan of salvation aren't we?
Awwwww. What a sweet post, it brought tears to my eyes. I hope she remains comfortable until the end (and eating her veggies!)
That was such a nice post about her! It made me cry!
It's so hard to have a family member need hospice, but I'm so glad she's in a place where she's happy! I worked at nursing homes, and some of them were unbearable. That is so sweet about her thinking it's a cruise!
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