Never Say Die Joe

Last week Dad was pestering the director of the adult day care center to let him play the piano more days than one. She has been telling him for weeks that the answer is "no". Last week she put it more emphatically. "NO, Joe. You will only play one day a week. No more." There were not enough words there to rearrange into anything else. He came home miffed. Now, this was not new news. But to him, this was like an epiphany. How could they do such a thing?! I asked him if they hadn't already told him that for weeks on end. Yes, but this was different. He understood it was final because the sentence was too short to construe in any other way. That would seem to be the end of it. But, no. This is Dad. Yesterday he came home and said that he had gotten thirteen people to sign a petition to have him play more days. These are the same people that he has already said are too deaf to hear what he plays and/or too mentally impaired to have an opinion. Never say die.

This week he started at the adult care center 4 days a week. This wasn't new news either. We have been talking about it for some time. He has brought it up himself and even said that he would do it since he had to do it. Then on Sunday night he declared that he wouldn't go a fourth day. NO. NO WAY! I was sincerely hoping that he would have forgotten that oath by morning, but since it was a negative item and not a positive one, that was a wasted hope. Monday morning was not too pleasant. He was going to dig in and not go. I wasn't going to let him do so. Every time he tried to give a reason why he shouldn't, I just cut him off and told him that he would. Period. End of story. After repeatedly being cut off at the start of each argument, he finally got dressed and just was ready when the bus came. He seemed to have had a good time and met someone new to visit with that day. The process can be very wearing. It really requires more than just one person or couple to deal with the every day issues of an Alzheimer's patient. But the sun came up again Tuesday morning and all in all, Dad had a good week.