Ahh, gril what is life?

Monday was the day Katti wanted to take a bath, not a shower as she has done. Today she doesn't like showers. I tell the bath is upstairs and she says no she can't do stairs. I put a chair in the shower thinking if she sits down it will work. No, she doesn't want to get her hair wet. Alright then we will try the stairs.
I get her two stairs up and she says she can't do it anymore, must go back down. I yell for Anne to help me convince her to go up stairs. Anne takes on arm and has her pull herself up with the other on the railing, I push her backside. After much moaning and groaning we get her up to the top of the stairs. Good job! I tell her. Now lets walk down the hallway to the bath.
We get her into the tub and try to get her to sit down, but she sits on her knees instead.  Anne puts one foot on the wall behind the tub and one in front to try and balance her as I pull her legs out from under her to sit on her bum. Whew! lots of work.
She wants her own cloth that is red and brown she uses at home. I try to make her understand she didn't bring it with her, but she thinks she is at home so why not.
Anne had to run to get the kids from school, so we wait for her to get back to help me to get Katti out of the tub.
As we wait for a good 10 minutes, Kattie rattles on about the tub in her house has a rim around the edge that she can grip to help pull herself up.  This is in constant repitition until Anne gets back.  We pull her up the same way we put her down and dry her off to get her dressed. She goes down the stairs much easier than going up, one step at a time.
Now that we are all clean and dressed she wants to go have a "puff puff". I joke with her about how nice she smells after a bath and how she will smell like a chiminey if she smokes. She gets it and laughs too.
"Ahh, girl" she says, "what is life?" I tell her it's a puzzle and we figure it out one piece at a time.
The rest of the day is spent out on the patio so she can smoke and enjoy what she thinks is Jamaica.
In the evening we are watching TV before bed and she wants to know if  Christmas  is this week and  is it Saturday? No, Nan we are in April not December and today is Monday. "What!"she says "are you sure?"This is the conversation over and over for the next several minutes.
"Ahh, girl what is life?"

katura

Here we are sitting outside in the beautiful California sun with a gentle cool breeze. Sharing a Guiness beer with Katti.She is enjoying herself thinking she is in Jamaica.
She wants to eat before she walks down the road to her place in Red Hill District. I fix her some pork and rice that was in the oven. "Aren't you going to eat"? she asks for the 11th time. "No, I'm not hungry" I say for the 10th time.
"Let me know when you are ready to leave" she says. "Aah, girl" I need another "puff puff" on me pipe." I can't keep up with the lighter fuel she has to light that crazy pipe so many times. Let me know when you are ready to leave she lets me know once again.
Once a man, twice a child she reminds me.
The kids are trying to convince her she is in America, which makes her upset, so they give up. We notice in the afternoons she seems to be more incoherent and weaker. It's difficult for her to be upright, even sitting she falls to the side.
I saw her falling back in the lounge chair and went to catch her, as her foot flies up and hits the table the bottle of beer hits me between the legs and spills. We have a big laugh! She says you look like you went wee wee like a man does! I said we are so crazy the two of us! It help dispel the day of craziness, praise God!

Katura

Once a man, twice a child is a saying that I hear at least 20 times a day from my good friend, Katura Crew, or Kati as she likes to be referred to.
She is 87 and has Alzheimer's.
I have only known her a few days, but have known her a life time in the few days of listening to her. Her stories are jumbled, jumping from chapter to chapter in no particular order.
She repeats like it was the first time she told me, and to her it is the first time because she does
not recall saying it once or ten times before.
So I listen, nodding my head like it was something new that she has not told me before.
Yesterday she was back in Jamaica, where her and her husband built a house and retired. How great it was to sit on the porch and people watch. She notices that no one passes by here and stops by, but it's confusing because she is believing she is in Jamaica.
Next minute she is in London England where she raised her 6 kids and worked in a hospital taking care of old people.
When she gets up in the morning she has to be told what to do like get out of bed, go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, take a shower. {Sort of like a child} I dress her and fix her white coffee and then take her out to the patio to have her "puff puff" or smoke her pipe.
Yes, I've learned to shave her tobacco leaves, clean her pipe and stuff and light a pipe.
We count to 3 to help get her up on her feet to walk, as I pull and she lifts.
Mornings seem easier than afternoons, by the afternoon she has trouble walking and being coherent.
When she gets agitated and has anxiety because she realizes shes not in Jamaica or England, but in America with people she cannot remember, she will go into rambling emotional rantings of how she is in prison and we are trying to kill her, or someone stole her money out of her bag, or she has been kidnapped, or her kids with their filthy minds don't want to take care of her after all the work she did to raise them. This will go on for hours and she will cry and pray to God that she lives no longer and just get louder and louder.
She actually believes this as true at the moment so you can't argue with her it or it will make her more agitated, so you sympathize and try and change the subject to get her to calm down and get her mind away from those thoughts.
Much more to tell, but I'm tired and need to sleep. Check back again for more.