Da Count - dementia & memory loss

Granted these are strange things to count. They relate to my Mum who is going through it now. Let me explain. For a few years I worried that she was going to shuffle off this mortal coil as a sad and bitter person. Until about a year ago... this would have been the case. But something gradually happened in this process... her feelings and memories of "not being given a fair shot" began to slowly erase. For the most part it has been replaced by a sweetness and gratitude.

I use to stock the fridge with 5 gallon tubs of ice-cream... that she would devour in 3 days or less. I had to stop this as it was causing water retention and swelling up her feet. When I told her this last week she claimed that a "little girl" would come into the house 5 or 6 times a day to eat the ice cream. I couldn't help but smile at this. I guessed that the combination of dementia and memory loss had conjured up the little tomboy she used to be. The one who used to climb trees in her grandfather's house and get into all sort of scraps. The same one who loved home-made hand churned ice cream that was a specialty of my great grandfather who whipped up a batch every Saturday afternoon.

She is pretty lucid (or at least appears to be) for the most part. Now I am mindful that the combination of memory loss and dementia mixes in past, present and yearning into one clump. Yes, there are other aspects of her condition that continue to be challenging. Though for now what her brain is pulling and mixing in with the present are some of the happier memories of her childhood... and that is definitely worth counting. So now, once a week she gets a treat of ice-cream... not a 5 gallon tub... but maybe a quart on a Saturday afternoon.

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