I thought I heard my Mom calling for me the other night while I was sleeping. Not my Mom of today, but my Mom from my childhood. It was a comforting and familiar voice and I sat right up in bed before realizing it was a figment of my imagination or perhaps a dream I was awakened from. And I was immediately sad with the reminder that I said goodbye to that Mom a long time ago.
When I now hang out with Mom, I am comforted to sometimes see the Mom of my youth, either in a glance or the way she eats a blueberry muffin, taps her fingers, flips through a magazine, hums to music or holds my hand. And occasionally, when she does say a few words, I am reassured she is perhaps cognizant of her surroundings and the people around her, including me.
I recently celebrated my birthday and every year I flash back to the first time Mom didn’t call me on my birthday more than 20 years ago. No message, no card, no present. So unlike her. She hadn’t yet been diagnosed but we knew something wasn’t quite right and when I later talked to her about it there was no acknowledgment or apology which was so out of character. She never again has wished me a Happy Birthday. Unfortunately, this was just one of the early realizations we were losing our Mom.
Mom‘s early prognosis 20 years ago of dementia “potentially leading into Alzheimer’s” evolved into an official diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease just two short years later. A few years later I started Maria’s Sisters and began fundraising with the Walk To End Alzheimer’s Association in an effort to channel my frustration and lack of control over such an awful disease. Even though Mom was diagnosed first, her two sisters have since both passed from Alzheimer’s and every year the number of additional family members and friends families afflicted with this horrific disease increases exponentially.
Please join Maria’s Sisters with a donation and/or walking with us on Sunday November 10th in Santa Monica.
Because we are all Maria’s Sisters.
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