The Piano-- and the sunnier side

Submitted by Wendy....
My grandmother passed away 8 years ago. She had alzheimers. My sister and I were her primary care-givers since both of our parents (her son) were ill. Our father (her son) passed away two year prior to her passing and our mom died 3 weeks to the day after she died, but was ill and confined to a wheelchair before our fathers' passing.


There are so many stories that if you didn't laugh, you would cry 100% of the time. It is a horrible disease that I would not wish on anyone, but it allowed us to get extremely close, unconditionally, to our grandma. When it got close to the end, she had become non-responsive to any of the nurses at the nursing home. I was there for lunch with her every day and then Linda, my sister, and I would go every night at dinner and spend time with her after. I walked in one afternoon and went over to Grandma sitting in her wheelchair, her eyes closed, and said, "Hi Grandma." The nurse came over and touched my arm and said, "Honey, I'm sorry, but she won't answer you, she won't answer anyone anymore." So I bent down and kissed her cheek and again said, "Hello Grandma." She opened her eyes, smiled and said, "Well, Hello there." The nurse just shook her head and said, "It must be love."


She had stopped drinking and no matter what they tried, they could not get her to take a drop of water. So, I wheeled her into her room and took a straw...dipped it into her ice water and held it to her lips...she looked up at me with a smile...opened her lips and started to drink, drop by drop until we finished half the glass. I would sit for hours and brush her hair, wash her face and hands with warm wash cloths and put lotion on. She would ALWAYS look at me with such kind eyes and say Thank you every time.


On a sunnier - funnier side... I played the piano ( very very poorly, I might add.) and the nursing home had a piano in their chapel. Grandma was very active in her church and she loved going to church, so Linda and I wheeled her down to the chapel often. Well, this one particular day we wheeled her down and sat with her and I decided I was going to play a little song for her and maybe do a little singing (now my singing is even worse than my piano playing!!) . So, I began to play and sing. Linda says to Grandma, "Do you want Sissy to keep playing and singing for you?" Without hesitation Grandma yells (and I do mean YELLS) NO, NO, NO!! The worst part of the whole thing...she hadn't spoken a word in over two weeks!!