This is the fourth (4th) of July…for me it has a special and sad meaning… For most Americans the 4th of July means American Independence Day and a happy holiday, but since July 4th 2006 it has been a day of sad memories for me…it was a day of suffering for June. I was called early that morning by the Benedictine Villa to tell me that June had suffered a grand mal seizure. It was the third seizure June had experienced after her journey into the late stages of her Alzheimer’s, disease. June was in her 9th year of Alzheimer’s. I thought the seizures had been controlled with medication after the first two in the prior year. Anyone who has witnessed a loved one with such a seizure knows the horror of it. The body gets rigid and shakes uncontrollably from muscle tremors, consciousness is lost. Compound that with the Alzheimer’s victim’s inability to understand and further couple it with the normal daily fear experienced in the late stages of the disease. When the victim regains consciousness they are physically exhausted, confused and fearful. Later in the day of July 4th 2006, as June was sleeping, and in my sadness, I drove to the Sofitel Hotel. My hope was that I would be able to recapture a glimpse of some of June and my earlier happy days in the lobby of that Hotel. In the old days we would sit at one of the lobby tables and have a glass of our favourite wine, a fruit-cheese plate with French bread and “people watch”. The trauma of the morning did not allow that to happen. Instead, I sought refuge in writing a poem about June and our home at 6025 Gardena Lane with a time setting of a few years before Alzheimer’s took over our lives. The year selected was 1995. My escape year poem was patterned after a similar poem written by a Sherlock Holmes fan called “221B Baker Street” and his escape year was 1895… Take a look at the poem that I wrote about June and our home on that 4th of July in 2006 following June’s seizure while deep in Alzheimer’s… junebergalzheimers/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=234&Itemid=523
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 05:38:13 +0000
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