Cars and Driveways

         It is sometimes hard to explain my life with John because it changes in the most minor details but yet is changes each day and the result is I must be more on guard.  Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is boring, endlessly boring and some times it is frightening but mostly it is a constant drip of the life a caregiver to Alzheimer person.

         This morning John was in the garage as we got ready to go to the Senior Center.  John walked toward the trunk of the car and I suggested that he should go to the sit in the front seat.  He walked to the side of the car and he had no idea of how to get into the car.  He stood there with a complete blank look how to process to enter the car or how the car door worked.

           Now the seat belt is a daily story with many chapters, most days the seat belt is a new experience but let me tell the funniest.  One day John took the his belt to the end of it's length and buckled into driver's side.  It was  a stretch but he clicked it!

          Ken, Mira and Ahman stopped over this afternoon.  It was delightful sunny day and I asked Ken to start my lawn mower because I am not strong enough to do it.  We have had the most rainy month ever for March so you can imagine everything about the yard is beyond over due.  Ken graciously mowed the back yard, John need to go in the house and use the bathroom, the kids were having a snack in the house.  As Ken finished cutting lawn we were having a conversation standing near my patio.  From the neighbor's back yard a voice is calling us.  "Hey, Hi!   I am over here!"   "Hi! Look I am over here!"  John had gone out the front door of the house. Gone to the neighbor's driveway, enter though their gate to the back yard and wandered into their backyard.

         The roaming is relatively new but it is growing.  The neighbors have brought John home a couple times in the last month and I have waved John home the distance four lots, walking down the street. Unless you are a caregiver yourself you have no idea how fast this happens.   Fortunately there are no bitting dogs on this block and the neighbors all know about John.