We spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. Both my sisters, their spouses, and all children. 100% attendance by the DePlume family. It’s the first holiday in memory my mother has commanded our presence rather than request it. “This will probably be the last Christmas,” she added, trailing off. Last
When my second kid was an infant, I had a nervous breakdown. I look back at the blog entries for that time and it’s not really there. I thought I was revealing myself, and in the posts, the crazy is obviously there, but the gravity of my situation never made
When I saw my parents on the way to a wedding last month, I tried to get my mom to consider respite care for my dad as his dementia progresses. “I’ve been looking,” she confessed. “But I can’t find a male nurse. There’s plenty of females in the business, but
Am fast discovering the impossible — after fantasizing from the time my oldest was about six months old (ten years ago) of that day, THAT GLORIOUS DAY, when my youngest child would go off to kindergarten, I would loose the tender shackles of full time motherhood, and be restored to
There are moments of silver-lining beauty concerning my Dad’s dementia. Despite the sadness, witnessing it feels heavy and powerful, as if I’m being imparted some dark and secret magic. There is some meaningful purpose to witnessing him as he goes back to the earth, to lose bit by bit, everything