I just returned from a cruise a week ago today.  From warm tropical isles to the deep freeze of the Midwest!  I am going to take a break and digress from "Journey through Alzheimer's" on this post and title this one "Adventures on the Love Boat."  The ship we sailed on was the Pacific Princess, the smallest now of the Princess fleet, but it was the ship that the TV series "The Love Boat" was filmed on.  It was the perfect size, about 650 passengers, instead of the megaships of today.  I was booked on this very cruise 3 years ago with Bob and some dear friends, Harry and Gail Janke, and their daughter Heather.  But Bob got too bad to travel from the time we booked until the time we sailed, so we had to cancel.  This year Jankes were going again, so I asked if I could try this again, and they said, "Sure, come along!"  But 2 days before the cruise Heather got sick and they had to cancel.  I had already decided if something happened I would go ahead and go by myself, so that is what I did!  So saying, I am going to introduce you to some of my fellow travelers that I met on the Love Boat. 
I was assigned to a table for 8.  The seniors at the table were a couple aged 99 (she celebrated her birthday on the ship) and her husband aged 98 (she said she was a cougar!) They were just as "with it" as any of the rest of us, and needed no mobility devices.  Another couple lives in Vancouver, B.C. She was from Finland and he was from Denmark, and they met dancing in Vancouver.  Then there was a dapper gentleman from New Jersey complete with the identifying accent that dressed in a suit almost every night for dinner.  His daughter kept his homefires burning while he cruised the world, even having been on the Queen Mary.  Last, but not least, was a couple from Atlanta, who also cruised a lot.  He had worked for AT&T and she had been a church secretary.  Charlie kept playing pranks on the room stewards and waiters, so we had a lively group.  We were always the last table to leave the dining room as we bonded together the first evening!
Our table (except for the elder couple who went to bed) always went to the excellent evening shows.  At one of the shows the performer was a lady who played the piano suberbly.  During one love song that she played she asked the gentlemen in the audience to reach over and hold their lady's hand.  I was amazing as I surreptitiously looked around to see men still sitting with their arms folded and their legs crossed.  Bob would have grabbed my hand immediately and squeezed it hard!  After the show, the folks at our table usually gravitated upstairs to the Pacific Lounge.  There the ship staff sponsored an hour of games etc. that were a lot of fun.  This particular night it was karaoke night.  I was still thinking about what had happened during the show with the pianist.  So believe it or not, and I still can't believe it myself, I got up to sing karaoke!  I was going to sing an Elvis song, "Have I told you lately that I love you", as it is a favorite of Bob and mine.  But they didn't have it on the playlist, so we agreed on "Peace in the Valley."  I enlisted the help of another man singer who had a beautiful voice who was going next to sing with me.  But first I made a little speech.  I told the smaller audience there about what I had observed at the show.  I told them I was supposed to take this cruise with the love of my life 3 years ago, but that his Alzheimer's had gotten too bad, and we had to cancel.  I told them he would have loved this cruise, and would have gotten out and directed traffic going through the Panama Canal!  So I told them, please don't wait to hold your lover's hand and tell them you love them, as you never know the future, and some day it might be too late. One of the tablemates jumped up and hugged me when we were finished the song, which certainly didn't rival the other singers that participated!
Then there were the 2 ladies I sat with at breakfast one morning.  One was a retired nurse, 87 years old, and she was traveling with her caregiver of many years.  She was in the last stages of kidney disease, and she was choosing not to go on dialysis.  So this would be her last cruise.  Of course she was diabetic as well, but very mobile and independent.  But her caregiver said whenever she wasn't looking, she would sneak cans of non-diet pop.  Good for her!
I met so many wonderful people, but the last couple I will tell you about was a couple that was always dancing, whenever and at whatever venue they found to dance.  He was from Columbia, and she was from South Korea, and they met dancing in San Francisco, where they now live.  She had the most gorgeous dresses, and they were always so filmy, so that it looked like she was floating across the dance floor.  Everyone how the ship talked about how beautifully they danced together--it was a show in itself, watching them.  I always spoke to her and called her "beautiful" and she would just beam.  I got better acquainted with them on a land tour.  He had even taken a $2000 massage therapy class as she has back problems and he could rub her back when she was in pain. At breakfast the last morning, I saw them sitting alone, and asked if I could join them.  Immediately I saw it was a mistake.  Her eyes were red from crying, and when her husband left to go to the buffet again, she told me "next time I am going to take a cruise alone like you are doing."  When he came back to the table, he put his hand on her shoulder and she said "get away from me."  So my bubble of their fairytale romance was burst, and I only hope they can work it out.  Life is not all a bowl of cherries, is it?
I went to see Bob the day after I got home.  I was still feeling like I was rockin' and rollin' on the ship like some do after a cruise (something to do with the inner ear!)  The housemother at The Piper told me a story that Bob was sitting at the dinner table with 2 other men, and the other men got to arguing about something, which I always smile at, because it makes no sense, and neither of them know what they are talking about.  But this particular night Bob had had enough and he yelled "SHUT UP!"  That tickled my funny bone, especially since Bob does not make sense when he talks either, and he doesn't talk much now, and also it is so uncharacteristic of him!  But that came out loud and clear!  I am not sure he knew me, but we held hands and I sang karaoke to him.  It is a song he always requested "You are my sunshine."
Hang in there folks through this winter when the sun isn't shining! I have cruise memories to keep me warm!
Betty