My mother has been in the memory unit for nearly a year.
In all that time, whenever I go to visit her, most of the time, I find her
in her room, either sleeping or sitting in her chair. Lately, I've
found her wandering around the building. Sometimes she is sitting in a
chair at the opposite end of the hall from her apartment, or sitting in the
community room, where the television is on (I doubt she's watching it).
Once she was sleeping in the chair by where the aides' office is, once
sleeping on the couch in the "library" which is at the end of the hall where
her apartment is.
I'm not sure if this newfound "mobility" is of her own making
or if it is because I think that at mealtime they lock all the doors so that
the residents can't get into their apartments, presumably to force them to
be more social with everyone else (though to look at the common room and see
them all staring off into space, I'm not sure if that is what it does!)
However, in all these months I have never NOT been able to
find her.
I arrived the other day and went into her room and she was
not there. I checked everywhere and she was not to be found.
This is a locked facility, so I knew she hadn't left the place, but where
was she?
One of the aides told me that she has started going into
other apartments. I'm not sure if it's to see other people, or because
she can't find her own apartment any more. The aide started checking
every apartment and finally found her in the apartment the farthest from her
own. I am remember her former roommate, Marge (who has since been
moved to a place closer to her own kids), who used to wander into my
mother's apartment and stand there looking kind of lost, then start to talk
in nonsensical sentences before she left, or before we escorted her out.
Anyway, all was well. She was found. She came in
and sat on a very uncomfortable folding metal chair and couldn't understand
it when I suggested she move to the more comfortable chair where she usually
sat. It did not compute for her.
I had brought the memory book I had made for her and she
looked through it, but couldn't recognize most of the people in it
(including her mother and brothers), but was slightly more interested in the
book I had made years ago when we visited the ranch in Valley Springs where
she spent her earliest years. The books are mainly for Alix, her
Alzheimer's buddy, who is on spring break right now but who will be back
eventually and asked for old scrapbooks she could look through with my
mother.
She looked through the Valley Springs book twice, then put it
down and said she was going to lie down because her "front" hurt. She
got onto her bed and after a couple of minutes, got up and left the
apartment. I assumed she was going to go to the bathroom, but she
opened the front door instead. I figured she would turn around and
come back, but she didn't and when I went out the front door after her, she
had disappeared. I don't know where she was because she wasn't in the
usual places again. I guess she was "visiting" again. A new
wrinkle. I came on home.
Today I received the following text message from Jeri, who is
now at Tom's house.
Her next text message told me that the "sorry" message had
been written by Brianna. I guess they are having fun with technology.
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