Good Days and Bad | Alzheimer’s in the First Person | Melissa Vaughan

“Going to bed now, it has been a good day..today Missy and I talked and talked all day, we said things that I want to tell her, I am so afraid that one day I will go to sleep and wake up and have Alzheimer’s and never come back…sometimes the words that I want to say will not come out. I have to work fast, I don’t know how much longer I have as the real me…” –Barbara Taylor Vaughan

Somebody asked me this week how my mom was…I don’t know how to answer that. She has good days and bad…that’s all I can think to say. Today was a good day, she had fun, she talked and talked and talked, she ate fresh fruit salad till I thought she would explode. She asked me if I would tell her I forgave her, and if I would tell her she was a good mommy, she said she needed to hear that one more time. I told her, and I wrote it on a piece of paper.

Later I went in her room and she had folded the paper and pinned it to her shirt, she said she wanted to be able to hold and read it whenever she wants. She remembered how she used to kiss the palm of my hand so I could put it to my face when I was scared, so all day she would kiss the palm of my hand and have me kiss hers. Tonight as I was putting her to bed, she said her prayers, and had both of her hands cupping her face…somebody asked me how mom was this week…how do I answer that?