My mom was a badass. She went to Tuff’s university and studied English. She studied abroad in London and was talented in many ways. She loved to paint, travel, ski, and spend time with family. She worked for Coca-cola, collaborating with people in the Olympics like Katarina Vik, Bruce, now Kaitlyn Jenner, talented artists like Elton John and Paula Abdul. She worked at IBM too. She did PR and advertising and was an amazing writer. Everyone loved her and she even played the guitar. She also was on the team that launched the famous cabbage patch doll! She always did amazing work, succeeded when putting her mind to something, and I know that there’s a lot of her, in me.
Now my mom is on hospice, she’s only 64. My mom got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when I was only in 8th grade. All I knew was that she forgot things. Growing up, me & my brother didn’t have a lot of emotional support. My dad worked a lot and my mom was not paying attention to us because of this disease. It made things difficult for my dad and my family.
When I went off to college, I didn’t see her a lot, and when I did go home, the progression of the disease would get worse and worse. This was hard for me. Things got out of hand at home and I didn’t see myself getting a full-time job when I graduated from college.
I decided I needed to come home and help support my mom and dad. I fired the aid that was not doing a good job. I deep cleaned the house…really deep cleaned the house. There was papers that were left in drawers from 2001… Expired food in the pantry…clutter everywhere. I knew my mom would want me to take care of things because she wasn’t able and my dad didn’t have the time or energy to do it.
I hired new care, worked with my mom, tried to have a life, but it was hard. I traveled as much as I could and worked when I had the opportunity. I was only 22. I knew that that was the only way for my family to be OKAY, was if I stepped up. And that’s what I did. I knew that if I didn’t, things would just get worse later.
We are still figuring it out. I am proud of my mom and who she was. I hope she is proud of me too. Alzheimers sucks. I love my mom and I all the sacrifices I’ve had to make have been worth it to make sure she’s comfortable.
