Two mothers, same fate

It's been a week of mixed emotions. My beloved mother-in-law who had been becoming frail as the weeks passed, was admitted into a local hospital. It was decided to put a stent into a heart valve to help her circulation. The stent did its job, but I'm not sure how to perceive it. After a couple of days of improving health and a renewed appetite, my mother-in-law had a setback, and she never regained her prior improved health. Making the matter even more of a sorrow, she died on my husband's--her oldest child and only son--birthday. Her funeral was today, and it's an understatement to say we are all walking around in varying degrees of grief.

Graphic Novels in College Freshman English Courses

One of my nephews is currently reading the graphic novel V for Vendetta. He's winding down his second semester, first year as a college freshman. I'm not too thrilled with the fact that Freshman English classes now seemingly have to use graphic novels (graphic in this case meaning not violence, which is, of course, in this novel--in this case it equates to "comic book-like" presentation) to keep evidentially the interests of readers in a world rapidly doing away with many "old school" texts. I wonder if we are "dumbing down" our younger generations, or have they become so disinterested in using their own imaginations that the interest has to be presented in a Freshman class.
  Don't get me wrong, this has a very formidable storyline, reminiscent of other dystopian novels of a genre which is usually bleak in nature. I know this particular graphic novel has been made into a film. Not sure how well it did as a film, because initially the premise did not appeal to me. Now that I know more about the premise it is interesting, but I'm still not certain it should be a novel taught to first year college students. Perhaps it would be better to have a special studies course at an upper level devoted to several graphic novels of this caliber and quality, even though there's still that nagging thought of "dumbing down" older students.
    I can think of several good graphic novels I have read, probably the first being Maus, followed by a sequel, and Persepolis, Also in two parts. Barefoot Gen, similar to Maus, is autobiographical and about survival in wartime. Perhaps I'm just jaded by remembering my Freshman English year having to read a Hemingway novel and The Hobbit. Neither of which I cared for that year.

Still Alice,and me.

I read this book after several months of it languishing in my "to read" pile. The reason I put off reading it, despite an interest, is that for me the subject matter hits a little too close to the neurons. Alice, the main character has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.

At 57, I'm several years into that "OK, what did I do with that?" or "Why did I come in this room?" those things that an allegedly healthy brain tends to ask when it's beginning to age. But there was a closer connection than age-related forgetfulness. My father wad diagnosed with dementia in his late 60s and I remember a tone of fear in his voice when he was getting into the car to drive while in his 50s and saying "I'm starting to forget things." I just chalked it up to age, as I was in my 20s and rarely, if ever, forgot what I was doing or going.
       As my father progressed into the stages of dementia, it became apparent that this was not just some age related situation. My mother, his primary caregiver at the time kept denying it was Alzheimer's perhaps just a series of "mini-strokes. I told her it didn't really matter, it was horrible to see his decline. We both wished more than anything (perhaps she wished even harder) that he would "get his brain back." Sadly, that never happened.
      My mother died before my father, not just due to post-surgical complications, but because, I believe, she was overwhelmed with caregiver stress as this disease progressed. Suggestions for care options were offered, but she continued to deny help. It was an added stressor to an already strained relationship between her and me. Several nights she called me, crying, due to my father's continued descent into a disease that no one deserves, but we are currently powerless to prevent. When I attenpted to calm her via long-distance calls, or even visits, she would brush off my suggestions. Double frustration for both of us.
    Because my father, who possessed a brilliant hungry mind like he passed on to me eventually had that intelligence lost was heart-wrenching. Because he was prone to combativeness (often the reason for my mother's tearful phone calls) after my mother died, my father's physician suggested placement in a nursing facility which had an Alzheimer's unit, and because it was in a small town, my father was pretty well known.
    I wasn't there when he died a few years ago at 83. Part of me had mourned for a long time. I'm sure the family members in the book Still Alice might have experienced that "early mourning" or despair.
    The book was not an easly read, but it was an interesting one and I'm at a point in my life that I wonder what the future holds for me with this specter of dementia feeling ever closer when I lose my train of thought, my vocabulary doesn't come as quickly to my tongue as it did. Stress, aging, dementia. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

A book that frightens me..

I just finished a well-written book that scared me as much as if it had been  part of the popular horror genre.

Starting over....

Having been away from my blog for nearly two years, things have changed. In the coming days, I'll try not to be away so much and plan to sort of change directions with this new blog. Same name, different content. Let's begin again, followers are welcomed, as is feedback.