Gone Missing With Mom

by Tammy Kennon

Liv Fun: Vol 3 – Issue 3

“N 37,” I call loudly.

“BINGO!” Arlene shouts, her eyes so alight with the thrill of victory that I barely notice the oxygen tube strung haphazardly across her face.

“Great job, Arlene,” I say, genuinely sharing her joy. “But, let’s keep going. We’re playing blackout, so we want to cover the whole card, all the numbers.”

Ten of us sit around a large wooden dining table at the assisted living home where my mom lives now. At 81, Mom is one of the youngest of the 15 residents. She suffers from Lewy Body Dementia, a form of dementia with characteristics of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At the time she was diagnosed, she was living alone, still driving herself to church and the grocery store. That was just over a year ago.

“I 22,” I call.

“BINGO!” Arlene claps her tissue paper hands, and the rest of us join in, celebrating her new Bingo.

Here, where the fire of dementia burns white hot, these women live fully in the present moment, deliriously happy with victory in any form. The flame consumes their newest, freshest memories first, like the memory of what was said one sentence ago, but leaves intact the oldest remembrances from childhood, like what the letter “I” looks like and the number “22,” and how, when they’re strung together in a line, they form a Bingo.

Last year, staying with Mom in her townhouse, I watched with an aching heart every morning as she got her own breakfast, relearning where everything was in her own kitchen. And then, because she couldn’t remember where they were in the first place, she put them away in different places, unintentionally giving me an object lesson in what it was like not knowing.

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Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Autumn 2014
View Table of Contents

Before the Storm
by Sue Peterson

No one likes to think about the possibility of her husband passing away. Yet statistics tell us most women will end up single at the end of their lives. Taking the time to get your affairs in order while both spouses are alive and well will go a long way toward creating security and confidence for the entire family.
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After the Disaster
by Jessica McCurdy Crooks

As a young girl growing up in Jamaica, I experienced firsthand the destruction of Hurricane Gilbert, a massively powerful storm that ravaged much of the Caribbean in 1988. Now, 25 years later, the announcement of an approaching hurricane still fills me with dread.
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Gone Missing With Mom
by Tammy Kennon

Ten of us sit around a large wooden dining table at the assisted living home where my mom lives now. She suffers from Lewy Body Dementia, a form of dementia with characteristics of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At the time she was diagnosed, she was living alone, still driving herself to church and the grocery store. That was just over a year ago.

Read More