He Still Knows Jesus Christ

This weekend Kim, my sister who was taking care of my dad for a short time, came down to visit us. My dad doesn't have any pictures or anything in his room and we felt bad as if maybe he was feeling sad and lonely. My dad was a very religious man and had a strong love for our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Since the Alzheimer's got to a moderate stage, he no longer prayed as he may have forgotten how. Kim got a beautiful picture of Christ the Shepherd, and framed it along with some family photos and put it together in a gorgeous frame. We took it over to my dad and showed him the pictures of our family and he sat and looked at that for a really long time. He could actually name some of his children and he could pick himself out as a child (some of the photos were of him as a kid). He also recognized the picture of Jesus. My dad's roommate, Joe (who has Parkinson's) was appreciative for the picture of Christ, which is in his view from across the room, because he too is a very religious man. In fact, he was a minister for many years. I told him that he and my dad had a lot in common since my dad served as a Bishop for many years as well. He was very happy to hear that and gained much respect suddenly for my dad.

Something funny happened the day prior to that, Kim and I realized that we might be talking to him too much like a child. I think it's a natural thing you feel you have to do with Alzheimer's patients. We were telling him that we were going to go buy him new slippers for his feet and asked him if he needed anything else and if he is happy, etc. We also reintroduce ourselves a couple times through the conversation. The tone of our voice is the tone that would be used for a 4 year old. So, as we stood up to leave my dad said "you two aren't smoken anything are you?" We looked at each other and started to laugh. My dad laughed too. We assured him we don't smoke and I am sure he is not referring to cigarettes. After we got in the car, Kim and I laughed again about what he said and realized that maybe he thinks we are the ones who are cuckoo!! Could be that the tone of our voice is confusing for him. We will try a different approach for now on and see how he responds.