Xmas and Alzheimer's Aunt, and more awards

It is interesting to me to examine the difference in my feelings toward my dad's illness (absolutely Alzheimer's--hey someone should photoshop an Absolut ad for Alzheimer's) and toward my aunt's illness which may or may not be some kind of dementia, Alzheimer's or just generic insanity.   Of course, she is not my dad (or my mom) so I'm more distant from the problem, and I was never close to her even before all this. But I think the biggest thing is her children's inability to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I saw Alzheimer's Aunt (AA) at my cousin's house on Christmas Eve.  There was a mix-up over food; I was incorrectly told there would only be snacks while we opened gifts, so I ate lunch first, and then got there to discover a huge meal laid out, so the fact that I didn't really eat anything caused some tension. I got stuck next to AA on the couch during gift time.  We were all drinking eggnog and being festive.  AA started gagging and puked her eggnog back into her glass and then set it on the table beside my glass.  Yes, a glass of puked-up eggnog is just the thing on a cold holiday evening.  I had been enjoying my eggnog until that point. After that, I just wanted to go home.  She insisted on playing a holiday trivia game from the 1970s and was angry when none of us could answer any of the questions or frankly, cared.  She spent about 15 minutes telling a long rambling story about something that happened 40 years ago that had no releva...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - Category: Dementia Authors: Source Type: blogs