today was a gift

I got to the nursing home to find grandma in the dining room eating lunch. She was alert and talking, she looked right at me and knew who i was. She told me she was tired and i asked if she had been up late last night. There was a lady behind her and she said "she was stealing". Apparently she thinks my grandma has been stealing from her. Ok that was an odd way to start my visit.

My Gram asked me what day it was, i told her it was sunday. She asked "what did you do today? church? sunday school?" I told her i was not as good of a church goer as she was, i told her she was a better person than me. She said "why does that make me better than you? better than her or better than her?". It was nice to have HER today. I almost didn't go at lunch time, i thought about waiting to go later. She said "Have this roll" and i said "no thanks gram" her pleasant reply to that was"who the hell do you think you are". god i love this woman

She asked if i wanted a bite, i told her no that i ate before i came. I asked her if her eye hurt. She closed her left eye and said "only when i know someone is not telling the truth". Really? she knew i was lying about eating before i got there. She then asked what day it was again and why i wasn't at work. She said "Emmett will start coming to church when he sees this young man sitting next to me, he is younger than me and of course, Emmet is older than me". I had on my NYU sweatshirt and she asked if i was going there.

I told her that her shirt looked nice. She said "I don't know where it came from and i don't know about all these stripes". I told her i bought it for her and then she said "oh then its nice, i got caught didn't i". She got caught because i could tell she didn't really like it. The ole bird is on top of her game today !

She finished her lunch and her aide and i walked her a little down the hallway. She said she was too tired to walk so back down in her wheelchair she went. She has to sit by the nurses station because she can't be trusted alone in her room. She said very loudly that she wanted to go back down to her room, she said " I don't want to sit here and look at all these people". She introduced me 4 times as Cindi Marie her granddaughter.

Back to her room we went, the aide helped her to the bathroom and i could hear my gram talking to her. "I haven't had too many people wipe my bum"... i just had to chuckle. She came out of the bathroom and asked me who i was there to see. I told her I was there to see her. She asked if i would come back for dinner and i told her of course i will.

I made it to Eastwood just in time for dinner and she knew who i was and asked where my tray was. She was picking at her forehead and i told her not to touch it because it was a stitch. I told her she fell and cut her head open and she asked me if she was gonna live with a shit eating grin on her face of course. She asked where the stitches were and i pointed on her face by her eye. She said "no, point it out on YOUR face". She was trying to read her name card and she asked me what it said. I told her Corinne Hoiem and she said it's not, it's Corinne Annear "he" wasn't worth living with.

We talked through dinner, we laughed, she bossed me around, i finished her sentences because she still says the same phrases "pimple on your tongue", "if i drink too much i'll have to pee", "oh you're full of shit"; you know, stuff grandma's say. She finished her tray and i pushed her down to the nurses station, i went to her room and got a couple of dove chocolates. I snuck away once she dozed off.

i am so thankful that i got to see and talk with my grandmother today. I am thankful that the alzheimers stayed away today