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    Mom, Alzheimer's and Me: Every Day Is Mother's Day
    Mom, Alzheimer's and Me: Every Day Is Mother's Day
    Mom, Alzheimer's and Me: Every Day Is Mother's Day
    Ebook115 pages42 minutes

    Mom, Alzheimer's and Me: Every Day Is Mother's Day

    By Cynthia Reynes

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    About this ebook

    Cindy’s journey into the world of Alzheimer’s began in 2008. Her mother would forget a friend’s name, misplace her money, repeatedly ask the same question, or simply forget what Cindy had said just five minutes ago.
    Tracing the various stages of Alzheimer’s that Cindy and her Mom have gone through, this book is an honest, humorous and poignant portrayal of their struggle with the disease.
    Inside you’ll read —
    •The many ways Cindy uses to calm her mother down when she gets agitated;
    •The perfect time for a caregiver to take a break—and it’s not when the patient is asleep!;
    •Everyday stories of love and laughter;
    •Why entering the patient’s world is better than insisting on our reality;
    •The ten ways to survive and thrive while taking care of a patient with Alzheimer’s.
    Are you ready to enter this world—even if just for the length of this book?
    Light reading and yet insightful, this book will help you to see life in a new way, laugh and cry at times, and be thankful for the gift of family.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCynthia Reynes
    Release dateMay 7, 2016
    ISBN9781310778353
    Mom, Alzheimer's and Me: Every Day Is Mother's Day

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      Book preview

      Mom, Alzheimer's and Me - Cynthia Reynes

      FOREWORD

      The Ten Commandments are among the most direct orders, if not the most direct, from God, given to the prophet Moses at Mount Sinai, as contained in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5 of the Old Testament.

      When I first learned them in grade school, what was easily comprehensible was the fourth: Honor thy father and thy mother.

      At a young age, we do not question or even give it much thought. We simply do. Our parents are our everything. We love them without condition, question and criticism. They are our heroes, our haven. We are nothing without them. All the variables start coming in as we grow older. We begin to see our parents as very human, with their eccentricities, pettiness, wrong judgments and faults.

      We love them but we start reasoning with them, answering back, even rebelling when we think it is justified. We do not grant the wishes or demands that they set, which we think are unreasonable. We turn a deaf ear to their pleas, especially if we think they are baseless and irrational.

      We are young, strong, and invincible. We know it all. And they? They have become old. They are no longer strong. They are given to repeating themselves, even living in the past. They have become slow, some barely mobile or even audible. Those who can make themselves heard can go on and on and on. We love them, true, BUT.

      We forget that the fourth commandment provides no buts or qualifiers or context. It does not say when, how or why—only that we honor our parents. It is a simple sentence that ends in a period, for perpetuity and all eternity.

      God knows us better than we know ourselves. He does not give us a way out. He simply tells us what must be done. We MUST honor our parents, no matter what age they are. It is especially challenging to honor them when they are old, sensitive, and irritable. It is nearly impossible when they are sick or affected by a disease or condition that makes them unrecognizable to us, or worse, vice versa. This is why the greatest of all is LOVE. If we truly love them, we love them despite.

      I admire the author of this book, my friend Cindy, who faces the greatest challenge a child can face: to keep loving and honoring a parent who no longer remembers her or all that she and the rest of the family hold dear, a parent who is now very different from the one that she grew up with because of Alzheimer’s disease. When the bond of love is strong, the honoring follows, even if it is a constant struggle for children like Cindy whose mother is afflicted with a disease that renders her into a state so unlovable that only true love prevails.

      Love that prevails is the best kind. It is the kind of love that God knows we must draw upon, when He ordered us to honor our parents. He sees what we cannot see in grade school when we were first told that it is God’s commandment to honor thy father and thy mother. He sees how people can change and how the roles between parent and child can shift, and how difficult it can get. So He gives us His wealth of love to draw upon when He creates innumerable opportunities for us to make wonderful, happy and lasting moments to strengthen the love we have for our parents. So that we love and honor them when they need it most—when they are old.

      Ma. Fatima R. Luab-Abaricia

      Introduction

      The Journey

      My journey into the world of Alzheimer’s began in 2008. Mommy was 78 years old. I was in my 40s. At first, I attributed my mom’s forgetfulness or absent-mindedness to aging. She would forget a friend’s name, misplace her money, repeatedly ask the same question, or simply forget what I just told her five or 10 minutes ago. I would reprimand her at times, but it went no deeper than that. When a good friend told me that Mommy may just have a little bit of dementia, I felt so relieved and ruled out Alzheimer’s disease. I pushed the symptoms to the back of my mind and told myself that things will be better tomorrow.

      Years passed. The personality changes and cognitive declines became more pronounced. Mommy had difficulty finding words, identifying days of the week or month, or even recognizing familiar faces. Many times, she appeared to be perplexed about her things or our home. It was time to visit a doctor. When the doctor confirmed that Mommy was in the early middle stage of Alzheimer’s disease, the news broke my heart.

      I tried to cope by capturing the heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking stories in a journal, then posting some of them in my Facebook page. To my surprise

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