More Snow Melt

Giving my mother a bath

Fidál (Grace), 5 Rahmat (Mercy), 167 BE – Tuesday, June 28, 2011 about 2:30 PM Pacific Time

I know this is a test. I know that as soon as I learn the lesson it will pass and another test will confront me. At this moment, I am interested only in figuring out how to past this test, which concerns giving my mother a bath.

The problem is that the bus, which picks Mom up and takes her to the daycare center, arrives about 8:30 AM. This means that Mom has to have her bath between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning. The last few days, the CNA who is supposed to give Mom her bath has not arrived before 8:30 or 9:00, which means that Mom has already left for the daycare center.

Since I cannot let Mom go to the center without a bath, I have given her a bath myself between 7:00 and 8:00. It is not easy to give Mom a bath since she thinks that she has already taken one. Mom does not want me or anyone else giving her a bath. She gets angry. She hits. She pinches. She even attempts to bite. However, I do my best to attempt to give her a bath. I am not sure how good a job I am doing, but I am attempting to do a good job under the circumstance.

After the bath is over, Mom is the sweetest person you could ever meet. She does not remember getting angry. She does not remember that someone else gave her a bath. I miss the woman my mother used to be before Alzheimer’s disease began to steal her mind.