Little Boys Bring Miracles

Alzheimer's is a horrible disease.  It steals your memory.  It steals your mind.  It steals your body.  It can't steal your love though.  Sure you don't always remember people, or places, or the date or what is going on, but you always remember the love you feel inside.  Little boys have a way of bring it back to you more clearly. 

Every time Aiden visits my grandma it is like he brings everything back to her.  She knows who we all are.  She seems to just light up.  She talks baby talk to Aiden.  She knows who my grandpa is and kept holding his hands and crying saying "don't go".  She said I love you to all of us.  She kissed my cheek.  She cried happy tears because she knew us all, and she cried sad tears when we left. 

It may be hard to see her, because she is only a shell most days, not the person I remember.  Her hair was always styled and dyed red, but not anymore.  Then there are visits like this when I bring Aiden with us and it brings her back.  It makes it just a little easier to come back again, knowing she really is still in there somewhere. 

Here are some pictures from our visit this week.

Granny on Christmas

Christmas was always my Granny's favorite holiday.  That's where my mom and I got it from.  We love the presents, the decorating, the songs, spending time as a big family.  We took Aiden and my brother to see Granny on Christmas Day after we did our presents.  It was soo very special.  Granny loved on Aiden just as usual, she even talked baby talk to him and played with him.  It was priceless and I'm soo glad that we have these memories on film.  Also I was carrying my red clutch and in true Granny fashion she noticed my purse.  She is where I get my purse obsession from, and even though she may not know who I am some days, she ALWAYS knows my purse!  This time she refused to give it back to me so I had to empty it out and I gave it to her for Christmas.  She even knew who we were for a bit.  She also said Brock was her favorite, always has been, but now he has to compete with Aiden.  It was really amusing and just like Granny.  Here are the pictures...

 She recognized us, it was really special.

Just like Granny, even if she doesn't understand or remember anything she lights up when she see jewelry, babies and purses. 

AIden trying to push Granny in her big stroller chair.  :) 

An old fashioned stroller Kris and I found.  It was the neatest thing ever and I'm sure the really old residents push it around.

You couldn't understand her, but you knew she was talking baby talk.  You can even see it in this picture how sweet you is talking to Aiden.

 Papa and Granny on Christmas.

She wouldn't give that purse back at all!  She even started to cry when I took it away to take my stuff out of it.

Letting granny have my purse.

A light clicked on

Wow, today we had one of those one of a kind amazing moments. Let me give you some background...

My granny has Alzheimer's. It's really bad. She's been in a home for years now and was placed there after running away from "some old man in her house" which was of course my papa. She doesn't remember people, she can hardly talk, she eats her food only after it's been blended and that's only when she is even willing to open her mouth. My papa visits her every other day and feeds her and the rest of us have a hard time visiting regularly, it's just soo sad to see the shell of what once was my granny.

The last 2 times I have seen her was the day after my wedding, Oct 26th 2008 that would be, we showed her our rings and gave her the corsage that we had for her and she seemed to understand. She held both my hand and Kris' hands together and seemed to get that we were married. Then I went to see her when I was pregnant once and she didn't exactly seem to catch on that I had a baby in my tummy, but we tried to make her understand. The last true semi-coherent day that we knew she understand everyone who was there (she always seems to figure papa out of course since he goes daily, she at least knows he is someone who always goes to visit even if she doesn't always know it's her husband if that makes sense....) was that day after my wedding. It's been a long while since we'd seen her smile and laugh.

TODAY: We saw that light click on again. She hadn't seen Aiden yet, we wanted him to be a bit older before we took him to the home, today was the day. My papa brought her up to the front where they have a room for family functions to minimize germs and he opened the front door for us. I came in holding Aiden and walked around the corner to see granny and immediately she just LIT UP! She had the biggest smile on her face the moment she saw me holding Aiden and she started saying "Look at him" - now it was very stuttery, but I heard her saw it. I almost cried, it was such a moment. God gave us a great gift, he gave her a gift.

The rest of the visit was wonderful. I fed him because he was mid-bottle when we got there, and she just sat watching me. I asked her who he looked like, just to chat - not expecting a response, and she looked straight at Kris. Then she even asked Kris how he was! I also was asking my papa about a family friend and said "Do you remember Kathy?" and clear as day my granny looked up at the same moment papa did and said "yes". It was sweet. She really did seem to be there and understand our conversations.

When it came time for her to hold him I asked her if she wanted to and she lifted up her arms to get him. She doesn't use her left arm, most the time it just sits to her side, and in the pics you can see that she had her left arm wrapped around his waist, she just knew what to do, she always loved babies soo much. Especially baby boys...

The 2 nurses who came out to help and see the baby even commented multiple times about how "Cleta never smiles like this", "Look how happy she is", "She really knows what's going on". To hear them who see her daily even say how great this was just made my day, my week... We will be taking Aiden again for Christmas, because even if he may get germs and a cold, he helped Granny more than I ever expected. Giving her days where she understands and is happy for a few moments was worth it.