New Learning

I've just spent a few days with my three lovely aunties. The one I spend most of my time with is 93. The one who came to visit is only 16 years older than me and has some form of dementia. The other aunt that I drove the two to visit is 83 or 84, I'm not sure.

It was a new experience for me to be around someone who has dementia. Someone who I've always seen as the beautiful, capable, smart lady who worked her way up a corporate ladder and went as far as she could up that ladder to only be stopped by genderism. That is my word for gender bias, gender crap. Anyway my learning is that I cannot look after someone for a little while who has dementia when I am not familiar with the disease and I am not familiar with what my auntie is like on a daily basis.

I think it was scary for her. We ended up in emergency because she started to get heart palpitations, shortness of breath and dizzyness. I ended up exhausted but she was okay. I don't do well with little sleep. The visit was great when we were together. All three sisters visited in the kitchen of the apartment and my cousin Ron and I visited in the living room. Ron is also an artist, but we both love cooking shows and we watched those while we waited to go to lunch.

In hindsight we've decided, her daughter and I, that she will not come to visit alone anymore. We've also decided, my 93 year old aunt and I, that we cannot go and visit them because it is a 6 hour car ride or more - depending on the border - and my aunt can't do it. She said she is getting tired just going to Toronto/Scarborough to visit the other sister. I hate to think about that time coming.

As to other news, I'm to give a reading at the University tomorrow night pertaining to the story in the book "somebody's child". I've had to take the story and re-work it to make it only a ten minute reading which means cutting out a lot of it. Do come by and join me if you get a chance. I'll be the nervous woman crying buckets while I relate the story of having to give up my son for adoption and crying more buckets this time buckets of joy for reuniting with him 36 years later.