Oh Mother

As previously mentioned Mother loves pulling at her eyebrow hairs and other facial hair but we figured out if we tell her specifically to stop playing with her eyebrows she will immediately respond with "Shut up, bitch." Who would have ever thought that hearing my Mother say those three little words could make me smile so much. She usually giggles afterwards or gives us the finger so it just makes it even better.

The past few weeks flew by but also seem like they've brought a lot of changes. Mother continues to become more and more agitated which is sometimes tough but with a good dose of Ativan life is good for both her and us. Warning: Waking up a sedated person leads to very weird conversations and events. Normally if Mother is 'resting her eyes' on the couch we try not to bother her because it's just better that way. Whenever we do wake her she will open her eyes (barely) and yell something funny. Usually, she will say something along the shut up, bitch lines, "be quiet!", or the ever so popular "where are we going?" The other night I was trying to get her to go to her bed and was walking her up when she followed the kitten into the kitchen and started commanding the cat to do things...to get me!

I was able to write down exactly what she said, " Get her, bitch. She's a bad bitch. These people are following me. I'm dying. I'm not coming back here." I just kind of distracted her and led her up to bed where I had to coax her to lay into the bed and to stop looking out the window at those people.

Shh...don't wake the dragon!

When we were younger we used to play a game called, "Don't wake the dragon" which involved trying to steal pillows from a 'sleeping dragon' (dragon being one of us kids or now Mother). Don't be silly. We are not stealing pillows from Mother but whenever she is sleeping we are constantly saying, "shh..don't wake the dragon" because to be honest she's quite peaceful sleeping.

Last night when I got home from work I opened the door and Melanie put up her finger to her mouth so that I'd be quite. I thought it was because Mother was sleeping which she was but surprised to see this beautiful moment:

Whoopsie, I woke the dragon! 

Irene?

Mother went with us grocery shopping to prepare for Hurricane Irene and she even made us watch the news last night but this morning I was putting stuff away and I asked Mother what she thought of Hurricane Irene and she said, "Irene? Irene who?" After that she just nodded off and went back to her happy place. I went upstairs and walk by the bathroom and hear "RAWRRRRR" and look over and Mother is on the pot growling or something. As we speak she has just taken off her shirt and now is dancing around topless. That's my girl!

The comedian within.

A normal day with Mother starts in the wee hours when Mother gets up and asks what's she is supposed to do. It was around 6am when she came in and I she didn't even have a chance to finish before I said."It's not time yet, lay on the bed and go back to sleep." She promptly rolled into bed, looked out the window, and went to bed. I was a little weary of how Mother was feeling today but was pleasantly shocked with her spirits today.

We were watching tv together when she looked at me and said, "Do you want a drink?" This, of course, delighted me! An entire sentence, wow, that's my girl. She actually meant to ask me for a drink for herself but, a sentence is a sentence! I walked into the kitchen and grabbed her a drink and loosen up the cap for her so she could take it off and she turns away exclaiming, "I want to die." I waited to see what happened next because sometimes you just have to ignore it. She walked over to the kitchen, picked up two oatmeal cream pies, turned giggled and asked me if I wanted one. Every since this moment Mother has been hilarious and oh, so cute. She was dancing to my music, making fun of us, and laughing so hard she was almost crying.

I wonder what the rest of the day will bring?

Hello?

Just like any other Benson if you are going to do something you do it right! Mother really emphasizes her 'hello.' We were in the car and she looked down at the purse and just kept shouting hello into the purse or wherever. She said it a few times and then just returned to staring out the window. Its more like a bellow while saying hello. When the girls went hiking with her she was in the middle of the woods (don't worry Melanie and Kendra were near her) shouting hello at the people, who don't actually exist. Actually, her meow and her hello sound very similar. You can't do anything but laugh when she starts doing either.

Miss Universe

Another side of Mother is that sometimes when the "people" aren't out she likes waving and talking to everyone. We will be in the car and she will wave at random people and say hello. She is so nice but sometimes she does it and thinks she knows the person and gets mad when they don't greet her first. She is like the dementia ambassador of the universe; she waves at everyone and wants them to know she's still beautiful even if the disease isn't!

Jedi Mind Tricking Dementia

Everyday is a surprise with dementia but it actually seems that we can handle anything that comes our way. We have this uncanny ability to "jedi mind trick" Mother out of her crazy thoughts, sadness, or whatever the day brings. You can start to see her frown coming from a mile away. It is seriously the biggest frown I've ever seen. As soon as we see this coming we know she's ready to "go home", wants to see her Mom, or wants to talk about her dead Father. At this point you can't really do much but distract her and make her think about something else. I used to be really bad at it due to the fact that I was wearing my sensitive pants but now we've all perfected it.

As the frown comes we try many different tactics to get her thinking about something else. Sarcasm and laughter works really well with her. She still laughs at things so we take advantage of that. She loves Ellen and comedy shows. She'll laugh every once in awhile at the shows. I'm actually not sure if she really is watching the tv because the blank stare makes me wonder. Anyways, the trick is to make her laugh. Once this laugh comes she forgets about her death wishes or whatever for just a few minutes! Most often this is repeated until she really forgets or is distracted by something else. We will take her for walks to the veggie garden or look for the kitten together. She loves meowing. You can't beat dementia but you can Jedi Mind trick it!