Just 24 Little Hours | Alzheimer’s in the First Person | Barbara Taylor Vaughan

You can't take it with you.

Oh if just for one day—24 hours—I could be young again. Let’s say 70 or 75—without Alzheimer’s, and with a healthy body—oh, what a day I would have. I would get up early and walk around the block, like I used to do when we first moved into this house. I would wave at my neighbors as they went to work. I’d take some of them their papers up to their front door, so they didnt have to walk out in the driveway in their pajamas. I would pet the dogs I passed as they were being walked by their owners. Oh, what a walk I would have.

I would come home and get in the car, and boy oh boy would I drive…I would drive to see some friends of mine and pick them up in my car and we would just drive around like teenagers for a couple of hours, going where we wanted to go, not relying on anyone to take us.

I would dance, oh, would I dance. I would twirl around, I would Cha Cha, I would Tango, do the Twist, all types of dancing. Then, I would go to the bathroom, all by myself, take a long, long bubblebath, with no help from anyone. Use the restroom all by myself, not having to call someone when I was done.

Oh, what a day I would have..I would get on a plane and fly to Florida and have all my friends and family meet me at a house on the beach. we would walk in the sand and skinny dip in the ocean. Oh, my, boy oh boy…All the things I would do, if I only had one day, one day…

Don’t put off the things you want to do, or say, please appreciate what you have now, and don’t waste today on wants and wishes for tomorrow…get off your butts and go do it. Do it while you still can. If only I had just one whole day of could have, would haves…

I want….to be able to dance again.
I want…to be able to drive again
I want…to be able to take a bubble bath by myself
I want….to be able to walk out to the mailbox by myself
I want …to be able to go to church and sit in the balconey, climb the steps
I want….to be able to get up in the middle of the night and get my own glass of water
I want….to be able to dress myself
I want….to be able to go walk by the river
I want….to be able to go to the bathroom, wipe my rear, and get up by myself
I want….to be able to remember what I had for breakfast yesterday
I want…to be able to be independent and do things by myself
I want….to not have Alzheimer’s

I have accepted that I can not do things all by myself. But I still can’t accept that I have Alzheimer’s, but I am working on it, and with all of your help, following my adventure with it, maybe I can help someone else who doesn’t want to have Alzheimer’s either.

• Anonymous

  Dear Barbara,

  I would like to contact you and your daughter Missy directly, but I can’t seem to find a way to do it… Would you please send me an email at: susan@@amazingwomenrock:disqus
  .com? I would love to hear from you.
   
  In the meantime, I would like to share a video I made of my Mom a few weeks ago:

  http://amazingwomenrock.com/pinkie-patti-the-dancing-bear

  She also has Alzeimer’s, and I believe she feels the same way as you do, although she could not articulate it as you have.

  On the positive side, we still have some joyful moments together and we still sing and dance

  Here’s another video we made a couple of years ago:

  http://amazingwomenrock.com/patti-a-susans-dance-video-2008

  Thanks for the inspiration of your blog, I hope to hear from you and Missy.

  Susan

• http://www.facebook.com/boyetj Boyet Agjjr Juele

  I so love you Barbara Taylor Vaughan ..

• Kay Comer

  Barbara…This was absolutely wonderful….I’d like to repost it in my own blog in the next couple weeks if you don’t mind and put you as author at the end of it of course…..This was just fantabulous and I’m so sooooooooo glad you’re back to your old spunky self…The Katydid http://www.birdseyeviewoftheworldofthekatydid.blogspot.com

• http://www.facebook.com/catherine.anderson.351 Catherine Anderson

  Much love to you always. You are my inspiration, to live, to the fullest, to appreciate and continue recording things, because each day is soooo very valuable. So blessed to call you my friend and thankful the Lord delivered you to us all here on this Earth.

• kristi brekke

  Makes one stop and think about the little things in life!! I love reading your blogs and statuses but do get teary eyed, at times. My dear mom suffered from Alzheimer’s. God bless you, Barbara and Missy!!