"The huge flumes from the fire"

My Mom is awesome!
 I adore her!
She makes me laugh, she makes me want to pull my hair out.

This past weekend I was given a beautiful shower from several family friends who attend church with my Mom and Nana. People who have known our family since long before I was apart of it. It was such a wonderful time to have precious women who didn't even know me, love my family enough to offer their time and money to put on a beautiful shower for Drew and I. Hopefully I will have pictures from the shower soon to share.

This disease we are fighting has it's unwanted flare ups and one reared its ugly head at the shower. My mom decided I didn't "talk" to her enough at the shower and by the end wanted very little to do with me. Now for those of you who have been given or even attended a wedding shower you know there is little time to sit and discuss with anyone much less people you see everyday. It is a time for greeting the guests, meeting new friends, thanking hostesses, not to mention being parked in a chair to open gifts for an hour and half. I encouraged my Mom to come sit to my left and watch me open as Neeley wrote my gifts down on my right.

We have seen jealousy become a problem for my Mom and Neeley and Kelsey seem to be hot targets for her when it comes to me. The rational side of her brain completely disappears at times not realizing that she would be unable to write down my gifts but thinking she needed to be in that position, nevermind the fact that I begged her to come sit  with me and each time I opened a present looked to her to show it off she was looking away or mingling with guests.

I write these stories not to embarass my sweet Mom or tease her but to share these very real moments in our lives at this point in time. To give a glimpse into what it is to live with Alzheimer's.

Last night I came home to find Mom and Nana sitting side by side on the couch, Nana drinking her nightly glass of wine she has taken on as a fight against her lack of sleep. I sat and watched them laughing for a minute together and was struck by the precious image.  A mother who in her 80's is caring again for her daughter, a daughter who in her 50's cares for her mom. They worry about one another when they are apart. It is a precious relationship.

I joined them and we sat together looking throught the church directory at people who attended the shower with Fox News on in the background. Listening absentmindedly to the new reports of the day and the man hunt happening in California, Mom exclaims that "The cabin had huge flumes from the fire!" Nana and I die laughing as Mom goes back to what she is doing before she realizes she must have said something wrong but not quite sure what it was. We laugh about it for a long while after this, just three girls all in a different battle with Alzheimer's but madly in love with one another.