Great starts are easy, the goal is to finish well
Now that the world has reawakened from its pandemic paralysis, families and friends are beginning to once again gather in person for get-togethers. Celebrations, memorials, and weddings are no longer being held virtually, or any other creative ways folks came up with to gather at a distance. Although the year 2022 began with yet another variant, the sounds of silence finally began to decrease, as the voices of joy slowly started to rise.
Finding Your Way
We had limited resources to help us when we first began our journey down the road of dementia with Mama. It was back in the early 2000s, and although the terms, dementia and Alzheimer’s were well known, the only books we could find at the time on the subject were medical journa
Back in 1952, Gene Kelly took the world by storm in the musical, “Singin’ in the Rain”. When Arthur Freed wrote the lyrics for that iconic song, I suspect that he must have spent some time in the Carolina’s where the rains are abundant in every season of the year – especially in the spring.
Back in 1969, the band, ‘Three Dog Night’ struck a resounding chord with their hit song, ‘One’ . The song begins, “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do”. It’s as true today as it was back then. The recent COVID pandemic with the culture that emerged from it has unfortunately created a lot of ‘Ones’ – a multitude of folks isolated from family and friends.
Mama’s blank expression assured me that she had no idea what I wanted her to do. The bunch of wisteria blossoms droop limply in her hand. I tried it again. Making an exaggerated motion of sniffing the flowers, I told her how lovely they smelled She gave me a confused look and a polite smile as she handed them back to me. I gave up. Temporarily! I desperately wanted her to enjoy the fragrant wisteria as she had in the past. Dementia stole that joy from her as well.
One of the saddest aspects of my Mama’s dementia was the realization that she had lost her sense of smell.
The most famous song to be sung at midnight on December 31 must be “Auld Lang Syne”, by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. I wondered how a Scottish poem became a New Year’s Eve tradition in America.
The New Year’s Eve festivities taking place in New York City’s Times Square were televised for the first time in 1943. Guy Lombardo’s dance band was performing live while the TV viewers waited for midnight. Lombardo decided to close out his New Year’s Eve performances with the song “Auld Lang Syne”.
The audience loved it. He made the song a New Year’s tradition. This yearly television exposure encouraged Americans to adopt as their own, the custom of singing “Auld Lang Syne” to bid farewell to the old year.
I have never been much of a nap-taker. Even when I am feeling sleepy, if I lay down and try to nap, daytime sleep evades. Interestingly enough, I usually do not have any trouble falling asleep at night. My occasional bouts of insomnia are usually due to a book that I find too interesting to put down.
It may be a genetic thing. My sister is also not a nap-taker, and my daughter never willingly took a nap when she was little. My husband easily takes naps, and I must confess that I am a bit envious of his napping ability.
We are now in the midst of Fall – it’s my favorite season of the year. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Fall, also known as the autumn equinox, officially arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere at 3:20 P.M. (EDT), Wednesday, September 22, 2021.
One of my favorite features of Fall is the cooling temperatures. At first, it is subtle – one-day cooler, the next day hot. Right along with the changing temps, the humidity levels begin to drop slowly as well. Humidity has been one of my biggest challenges to adjusting to our new home here in the east, but air-conditioning helps me acclimate significantly.
The last couple of months have been a technical challenge for me. I noticed lately that my blog posts have had a precipitous drop in readership. Looking into it, I discovered something interesting. Five years ago, when I first began posting in my blog, it was perfectly fine to have my site URL begin with http://www… But recently, I learned that several browsers actually warn users that the website they are attempting to reach is not secure and may be malicious. Wow! Time to make a change.
The St. Croix River in northern Maine divides the United States and Canada. The International Avenue Bridge connects the two countries. On August 9th, we sat in our car on that bridge for nearly five hours – along with hundreds and hundreds of others. Like us, they had been waiting a long time for the border to re-open.