My Mom barks out “No one has a Christmas wreath up now.” A silent “huh” plays in my head and I see the same expression on my daugther’s face. I tell my Mom that “We passed quite a few wreaths in the hallway.”
My Mom doesn’t resort to her prior habit demanding we “prove it“, but challenges me to “show me another wreath” in not a very pleasant tone. I open up her door and point to two wreaths within sight of my Mom’s door.
“Oh, then lets put it back up.”
A week ago her Christmas tree disappeared and we found it hidden behind a chair in her bedroom.
I now have been through it enough and recognize that my Mom is moving through periods where she doesn’t recognize that Christmas is coming. I imagine that she takes it down believing Christmas has passed. She now is unable to really grasp time and it’s passage. When she did this previously, I just thought it was poor memory. Now I recognize that she can’t conceptualize the difference between a week, month or year.
She’s trying so hard to keep it together. We can still sit and have a nice visit together and share a meal – and for that, I’m grateful. However, the deeper she moves into this disease, the harder I sense she’s fighting to manage. Watched.