Epiphany in Baltimore

2001-03-11

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

I visited my grandma yesterday. She is staying at the Redford Presbyterian Village, which is basically like a big dorm, except with old people and nurses on duty. There are four levels of care - "one" is minimal care, "four" stands for lots of care. My grandmother is in phase 2 - a reflection of her overall good health but rapidly progressing Alzheimer's Disease. My dad said he saw a lot of difference in the two weeks since he visited last. She's still in the beginning stages, but it's still serious. The people who worked there were all very nice. My grandmother doesn't understand everything that's happening to her. We think she thinks she's gone to this place to get better. She thinks she'll be sent back to her home of 40 years on Dixie street when she gets better. But the house is emptying and ready to be put up for sale. My dad and uncles aren't hiding it from her or anything - she just forgets that they've told her this. Grandma's apartment is like a large dorm room. It's very nice. She's still a big goofball - 50% her personality, 50% her disease. Everyone loves her in the building. She's one of the better-shape phase two's, and the other old people take advantage of her niceness. Her next-door neighbor, whose name is Hildur, just turned 101. My grandma is only 75, seemingly far too young to be degressing so rapidly. Anyhow, it was wonderful to see her. She was so happy to see me, she almost fell down. I stayed in her house on Dixie for the night, and it was sad - empty, cold (heat's off). But I think she's in a good place now. She's spent the last decade since Grandpa died isolating herself, and the lack of interpersonal communication has put made her disease progress more rapidly. Now, she sees people everyday. And she lives for the visits from the family. Once, my dad told her he was coming up on a Sunday, and she got it mixed up and thought it was Saturday. According to employees, she stayed all day in the lobby on Saturday, waiting for my dad. She was waiting for us in the lobby this morning. I don't know how long she'd been waiting. I see my dad work through this, and I'm amazed. He made the tough decision to put grandma up in this $3000/month facility, which required a downpayment of two years. My grandfather, who worked all his life as a barber, saved well, so that's what their life savings are being used for. My dad loves the fact that Grandma will be pampered in her last years just like she always pampered her sons. Yet another rambling entry...