Tag: humor

Finding the Humor in Short Term Memory Loss

Mrshorttermmemory
Tom Hanks as Mr. Short Term Memory on Saturday Night Live

After I posted a story about my frustration in caring for my Mom who is a moderate to progressed phase of multi-infarct dementia, I got a comment from another blogger Demented Girl that made me giggle. In the past week, I’ve been thinking about a skit that Saturday Night Live used to do with Tom Hanks who was Mr. Short Term Memory. Here is a link to one of the skits where he is visiting his friend in the hospital. I ache for a comedy about this tragic disease. While it’s no laughing matter, I think the skit does a good job of reminding me how much I’ve improved my skills being patient as I’ve traveled this journey.

Some days I wonder if I’m too accepting of things I can’t change. I have a morning ritual of meditation where I will review my mental checklist of the things I want and how to get there. It has helped me become more focused as well as eliminate “worry” from my vocabulary. I find that worry doesn’t help me do better, it actually diminishes my abilities. I’ve been on a mission to completely read the bible in a year, and it’s part of my meditation. It’s helped me eliminate some harmful emotions – self-doubt, judgement and worry. Many of us on this path have shared that it’s changed us in positive ways. While some days it sure doesn’t feel that way, I know that it’s teaching me skills I failed to learn the first half of my life. Grown. 

The intro jiggle to the skit: “Mr Short Term Memory, he shouldn’t have stood under the pear tree, now there is just no remedy, he will frustrate you so, but he’ll never know, because he’s Mr. Short Term Memory.”

 

 

Thank you Seth Rogen – Humor is Helpful

sethtestestifyDementia sucks for everyone. It is little understood and robs the afflicted of their memory, independence and usually in the later stages of their dignity.

When this journey started, I had to look up dementia versus Alzheimer’s. I will admit that I’m a little conflicted about how one type of dementia (Alzheimer’s) dominates the dialogue — regardless, I was pleased to see Seth Rogen’s approach to help shed light on the disease.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I’ve had many situations that while tragic, were downright funny. This journey is hard, and humor helps.

To see Seth’s testimony, visit: Seth Rogen pleads with Congress over Alzheimer’s, slams low-senator turnout. Laughed. 

Some of the Funny Stories (upon reflection) include:

Call us Back so we can see if the Phone is off the Hook

Panty Raids in Assisted Living?

Someone Broke into your House?

My humor is starting to wane and that worries me!

My daughter just turned ten. When I visited my parents a few days before, my mom gave me a sealed envelope she addressed to my daughter.

She just had me help put together a card and check for my nephew, so I was curious what she put in the envelope for my daughter. She initially suggested I buy her a gift.

When my daughter was opening presents, she gets to the envelope my mom had made. For years, my mom would write little poems, which is what I was expecting to fall out.

Instead, the envelope was filled with various pictures from my parent’s life in the past decade. One was a picture of my parents with my daughter, but the others included a picture of the lake at the retirement community when it was under construction and a picture of the empty deck at my parents town house.

My husband and kids laughed — it was an odd collection of pictures in a funny strange way. I felt the angst my mom must have felt in trying to put together the envelope for my daughter.

I feel like I’m getting a little to close to the flame and need to pull back so I can continue to help my parents without burning myself out. I need to find the humor — things promise to only get more difficult.

Whether its funny strange or funny ha-ha, I need to see the humor in our situation. Acknowledged.