Another 2 months unblogged.
A difficult 2 months in some ways - my mum is now in residential care, but at least it is only 20 mins or so walk from us. She was in hospital for about a month after wandering and getting lost only a couple of streets from her home. Dementia is a terrible disease. I am so glad that my mum only got it relatively late, and before that, was so healthy, active and had a great life after retirement - 20 years of a well-lived life - travel, a passionate relationship, art classes and exhibitions, friendships and holidays. But now she needs a great deal of help with her day-to-day life, so she is in a place where she can have that, and I can visit her much more often than if she was still at home. It's a good place, there are activities and events and trips - we went to the Perfect Pets' day there a week ago, a lovely sunny afternoon in the garden with various animals brought round for residents to stroke and play with. A dozen kids, a family/community feel to it. It is hard in so many ways to deal with dementia in a loved one, but mum seems content and I enjoy visiting her, as long as I let go of the past, visiting the person who is my mum now instead. I think it is particularly hard on Freya though, very hard.
August and September for F went to:
swimming, rollerdisco, a friend's birthday sleepover, Monday group starting again, a Shakespeare workshop at the British Museum
for me they went to:
my birthday, a lot of work, a nasty virus
Ahead of us is a fantastic couple of months with some great new activities/groups starting.
This week we have/had:
Monday pm social home-ed group - today a friend brought Mentos and Diet Coke and we all admired the whooooosh of the resulting explosive fountain, we also looked at a reaction producing carbon dioxide inflating a balloon on top of a bottle (though to be fair I think the kids weren't even there for that one, but we had fun!), and I took some water testing strips and we found out rain is a bit acidic and soapy water is a bit alkaline.
Monday later pm new drama/movement group - this looks good so far, lots of fun drama games and expression stuff. Also it is just 5 mins walk from mum's home so I/we can visit easily.
Tuesday am LAMDA drama
Tuesday pm creative writing group
Wednesday am Forest School
Thursday am - a series of different workshops every Thursday, starting with 3 weeks of art, then there will be history and cookery
Friday - am 3 weeks of workshops on the theme of friendships and related issues (invaluable!)
Friday pm yoga
Just looking at that makes me think we're so lucky! And even more things are being firmed up, ahead: a book club I'm going to lead, monthly; a regular slot (monthly or fortnightly) for home-ed swimming, rollerdisco and table tennis; other Friday workshops on a regular basis.
It is a bit on the busy side, but it's all so good!
8 comments:
where you live sounds so fab for HE things, should we move ever, we will bear that in mind ;) .
hugs for you and mum, my gran had alzhiemers and dad paranoid about getting it [73 and ok so far] . in fact many hugs x x x x as know about losing the person that you had x x x x however glad a fab home so close so that you can share what you can x x
Sorry to hear about the hard things x Good to hear about the busy things and I hope our paths cross here and there.
Sorry to hear about the hard things x Good to hear about the busy things and I hope our paths cross here and there.
Sorry to hear about the hard things x Good to hear about the busy things and I hope our paths cross here and there.
Sorry to hear about the hard things x Good to hear about the busy things and I hope our paths cross here and there.
LOL Allie, you are really sorry aren't you? Thanks! Was nice to have a proper catch-up with Dani on Sunday at Apple Day.
HH we are really lucky at the moment, there is a lot going on for F's age, so please do make us top of your 'if we move' list, though I don't imagine it's likely!
I'm fine with mum as long as I can just focus on the 'now' and this person she is being, but of course F has questions when we visit and is still much more grieving and losing and that stirs up my grief and loss too, which is all as it should be really.
God, that was weird! I think it's something my phone does that I am probably causing to happen but no idea what!
I missed this post - just found it when I saw your latest update.So sorry about your mum - My MiL is really ill and after a traumatic summer is moving into nursing care in the next week or so (she's been at the local hospice for the last 3 weeks). It jolly hard - but at least you know that she is safe and cared for.
Post a Comment