I haven't posted a blog in awhile.  I have Libby, our 8 year old granddaughter with me for the summer, and we have been busy!  But we go out to see Pop Pop every 2 or 3 days and she loves to push him around in the wheel chair and feed him if we are there at mealtime or take him a special treat.  He brightens visibly when she enters the room, as do the other residents.  I got Libby a doll that looks amazingly like a real baby.  She has taken it when we go visit and Bob will hold the doll just like he would a real baby and talk to it just like he would a baby.  After we had a sing-a-long one afternoon, Libby gave the doll to another resident to hold and the lady sat there and sang to the doll for at least half an hour.
Bob is on a plateau right now.  His condition isn't changing for the better or for the worse.  Memorial Day weekend I came home from picking up Libby in TN, Valerie and her family all came here.  We were having breakfast one morning when the nurse from The Piper called and said Bob was unresponsive.  They didn't witness it, but thought he had had a seizure as he had bitten his tongue and blood was coming from his mouth.  He has not had a seizure before, so this was a surprise.  But the hospice nurse came and checked him and also thought that was what had happened.  She said it was just the progression of the disease.  I didn't know that could happen, but I googled it, and it evidently is part of the disease process. By the time we got there though, he was starting to respond again, and by afternoon was pretty well recovered.
One incident happened this summer that caught me off guard.  I would expect it, if he had passed and I was changing names to just my name on accounts.  At the advice of my attorney, the house and car are changed to just be in my name, but I haven't worried about utility accounts, and probably wouldn't ever worry about them.  His name is on all those accounts, but they certainly don't say anything when I pay the bills in my name!  But it was different with a cable company who shall remain unnamed!  I tried to cancel a channel and they asked to speak to Robert for verification, since the account was in his name.  I explained why I couldn't do that, and they said I would have to come to their office with my power of attorney papers.....I told them they hadn't said a word all the 40 years that my name was on the credit card that had the autopay charged to it.  When I took the papers in the office in a file folder and told them I wanted to change the account to my name, they didn't ask to see them, just told me they were so sorry for my loss.  I let it go at that!
I read a book recently by Dick Edwards, a retired Mayo Clinic eldercare specialist.  It is called "Mom, Dad...Can We Talk?"  It is written for the children of aging parents who are trying to figure out solutions for their parents "golden" years.  I loved this:  "I noticed when my parents stopped trying to stay young, they began to enjoy growing older."  (paraphrased)
 My whole blog is written for the purpose of trying to negotiate that rocky road and be prepared for surprises.  But my daily devotion site "Guiding Light Ministries International" had this gem this morning:  It was titled "Stop, in the Name of Love"
Sometimes, you just have to stop worrying, wondering, and doubting.  Have faith that things will work out, maybe not how you planned, but just how they're meant to be.
We often tend to over-think things...doing mental gymnastics, worrying and fretting over very possibility and detail, trying to figure out how to make things work out the we that WE think they should.  But there comes a time, when you simply have to lay all that aside and take a step of faith, knowing that things will always work out for your certain good.  Life becomes SO much less complicated when you do....moving forward without preconceived notions, knowing and trusting that all will fall into place, if you only believe! (author unknown)
Libby told me the other morning when she woke up that she had a dream during the night where she was being chased by a bunch of old people in wheelchairs!  Maybe they were enjoying the "thrill of the chase"!  But I am going to get a motorized wheelchair when that time comes, so I can keep ahead of her and maybe pop wheelies while I am at it!
Yours to enjoying growing older!
Betty