Sometimes Amazing Things Happen, Sometimes They Don't

Two weeks ago Dad had a busy weekend. He spent a day with my brother and then a day with my sister. They both thought he was doing well and clearly. Those are the amazing days that make me seem the biggest liar on earth. When my kids were little they had foods they loved and foods they detested. When we would go out people would often ask us what our kids liked and we would be honest. Then the kids would turn around and fill their plates with just the opposite and eat it all. Kids and Alzheimer's patients can make you look really bad really fast.

Dad hadn't known what I did for a living for over a month. Each time we would talk about it around the house he would ask what that was and then say, "Why haven't you ever told me about this before." A month or more of that and it seemed pretty clear that he had actually forgotten all about it for good. When my sister was here with him for a day I had a meeting to go to for work. When I got home and was telling my sister about it, I told her it had been a big success. Then my dad chimed in and told her exact numbers and figures related to my job. A job, I might add, that a day before he was completely unaware that I had.

There are periods when he seems to absolutely compel himself to being alert, aware and as normal as any well informed 82 year old man. Sometimes amazing things happen. Then there is the next day. That condition cannot be maintained. I don't understand it, neither how nor why it works that he even can be clear, but he can't keep it up. When everyone else is gone the bubble bursts and we have a confused man again. The day after my sister left I asked him about my work and he told me he didn't know about it.

It was his birthday this week. He really looked forward to turning 82. He talked about it, thought about it and worked himself up into quite a clear state of mind about it. The morning of his birthday he started opening cards. But he didn't know who they were from. Grandchildren, children and people he sees regularly were complete blanks. He will recover most of those people, at least for a time, by the next hour or day or so, but they will fade again. Sometimes amazing things happen, and sometimes they don't.