Its been some time since visited or posted... Just wanted to say hello to all the people here who I used to know well.
Monique is still alive and well and into her 2nd year in the excellent Alzheimers care home near Royan in France. Aged 69 she is the youngest there. She was the 2nd youngest for a while but the other person died. Monique is now totally incontinent, spends 99% of the time in bed, converses only in French. Mind you converses is an odd word to use. She only really exchanges short sentances with people who are not in the room so she replies briefly for them.. With the fairies is probably a good discription.... She is fed only fortified food things with a spoon but can sometimes stuff a bit of cake into her own mouth.
She does not know me - in fact I get the feeling my presence is an irritant but hey - who knows.. I have visited at least once a week during the 18 months but am now trying to cut that down - need to get on with my own life a bit.. Not easy - stacks of guilt monkeys... the economic crisis has had a big impact on all ex-pats I think with the 1/3rd drop of the £ v €uro. What was once affordable is now not. The French state chips in €5000 on a €40,000 PA bill. Not sure what to say about that - I am now thinking of moving to Spain in a year or so... duuno... Funny really - at the beginning of this 'alzheimers voyage' and towards maybe the end the biggest problem is not knowing things.
I was lucky to have found talking point early on - nothing like it here in France... At least I was able to see how others cope and that was very useful..
I sold my house in La Rochelle and Moved to near Moniques care home - 15 minutes away. The home is excellent and superbly mangaed with a Psycologist who appears to be more concerned about me than Monique. The sun is shining - I have a beautiful boat and have just come back from a short voyage to northern spain with a break in the middle to 'do a visit'... All is not bad with my world -- just a bit sad in places.
love to all who knew me
Michael
Monique is still alive and well and into her 2nd year in the excellent Alzheimers care home near Royan in France. Aged 69 she is the youngest there. She was the 2nd youngest for a while but the other person died. Monique is now totally incontinent, spends 99% of the time in bed, converses only in French. Mind you converses is an odd word to use. She only really exchanges short sentances with people who are not in the room so she replies briefly for them.. With the fairies is probably a good discription.... She is fed only fortified food things with a spoon but can sometimes stuff a bit of cake into her own mouth.
She does not know me - in fact I get the feeling my presence is an irritant but hey - who knows.. I have visited at least once a week during the 18 months but am now trying to cut that down - need to get on with my own life a bit.. Not easy - stacks of guilt monkeys... the economic crisis has had a big impact on all ex-pats I think with the 1/3rd drop of the £ v €uro. What was once affordable is now not. The French state chips in €5000 on a €40,000 PA bill. Not sure what to say about that - I am now thinking of moving to Spain in a year or so... duuno... Funny really - at the beginning of this 'alzheimers voyage' and towards maybe the end the biggest problem is not knowing things.
I was lucky to have found talking point early on - nothing like it here in France... At least I was able to see how others cope and that was very useful..
I sold my house in La Rochelle and Moved to near Moniques care home - 15 minutes away. The home is excellent and superbly mangaed with a Psycologist who appears to be more concerned about me than Monique. The sun is shining - I have a beautiful boat and have just come back from a short voyage to northern spain with a break in the middle to 'do a visit'... All is not bad with my world -- just a bit sad in places.
love to all who knew me
Michael