I am writing to express some of my dealing with loved ones afflicted with this terrible disease.
We have been married for over 70 years and my wife Gladys started to forget things about a year and a half ago and I thought it was old age.
As time went on she would forget how to use the washer and dryer, TV, remote, phone. She started asking to go home and would pack a bag and I would say 'honey you are home and this house and all are yours.'
This would happen 10 times a day then she would get up at night, dress and go out for a walk while I was sleeping. As it happened a few times I called 811, told them the story and they called an ambulance and my wife was admitted to Chilliwack Hospital for assessment.
The doctors, nurses and staff at CGH were so professional and caring, it was wonderful. Our life up until now had been great, going south in the winter and golfing and going to the Chilliwack casino to play bingo, putting in a few coins and having a great lunch at the restaurant.
But then my wife would miss numbers and sometime bingos. We stopped going to bingo altogether and I now think that was a bad move because it would have been easier to look after her there than being the caregiver at home.
The hospital recommended she be put in a home, so I applied and was she was taken to Heritage Village in the Alzheimer's area. The staff and everyone in that should get a medal for there wonderful caring.
My daughters Jennifer and Micheline have been a pillar of strength and help (I thank them). We try to visit Gladys daily if we can, and I write this letter as most of the patients get no visitors. I want to tell a short story on this, as with my wife every day or even mornings is a new day. So you can start to think all memory is lost!
The other week I asked my wife if she would like to go for a walk in the beautiful gardens of Heritage. As we walked in the gardens my wife would stop and smell the new flowers and would tell me their names, then she would pull a branch from a tree smell the leaves and say the type of tree it was. At the end of the garden I got two chairs and we sat watching the traffic on Knight Road and I asked if she remembered it and she said never seen it (we live facing Knight Road). Then I asked if she remembered the old bingo hall which she loved to go to and said never been there.\
As we sat holding hands she started to cry and I said 'honey, don’t be sad,' and she put her head on my shoulder and said 'I am not crying because I’m sad. I am crying because you are here and I love you!' (I was lost for words).
I have found that some times a nerve is stuck and a bit of memory comes back.
Lest We Forget.
Jim Davies
Chilliwack
