Today the mailman came and brought a Christmas card for my MIL. Getting mail can be another trigger to her past that can be a difficult challenge for her to process "connections" and "locations".
This particular card came from a couple who she knew in Houston but they had moved to New York several years ago. When I asked my MIL who the card was from she told me it was from someone she had gone to college with. But I could tell by the way she was fidgeting with the envelope that she wasn't sure. She was peeling the stamp up and saying something about you couldn't even tell where it came from. I looked at the envelope and sure enough the stamp had been postmarked but you could only see TX on it.
She was very frustrated that the card did not have a return address and the couple had signed it with first names and no last names. I recognized the first names and told her who I thought it was from. But she seemed to get more irritated that they didn't sign their last name or put their return address on the envelope. I could tell this was going to be one of those instances where the thoughtful act of sending her a Christmas Card was going to create a moment of frustration. She could not place who these people were, how she knew them, or where she knew them from.
After pacing back in forth from her room to the kitchen, she finally retreated to her room upstairs to read. It appears frustration over the lack of her ability to remember little things is beginning to be a daily occurrence. The neurologist told us in May that she would decline three times as fast in the next six months as she had in the previous year. Until December we really had not seen signs of significant decline until now.
It makes me wonder what the new year will hold!
Life is good .....over the hill!
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