Watch Out Loretta!

Did you see the winners of the $141 million Powerball jackpot? Frank and Loretta!  Now, Frank said he’d “Spend more time with my wife.”  Here’s all I can say, “Watch out Loretta!” The door men were coming early this morning.  You know, the door that lets the sunshine in? (Hey! That’s another song. Remember the musical “Hair”?)   Anyway, after our coffee, pears and a quick newspaper read (He loves pears), I told Jerry we needed to get dressed because the door repair people were coming.  I said, “Why don’t you go upstairs and brush your teeth?  I’ll be right there.”  You see, Jerry follows me everywhere; up the stairs, down the stairs, into the bathroom, and so on.  So, I try my best to have him do some things on his own.  Today, it was brush his teeth.

Now, Jerry is a man of few words.  After a little prodding, he got up from the table and headed toward the stairs as if he was going outside.  I pointed up toward the bedroom and repeated, “Go on up the stairs and brush your teeth.  I’ll be right there.”  He paused, took his first step up the stairs, and said, “Where are they?” I’m still laughing as I write this.  Jerry has all his teeth!  They are in his mouth!  I knew we were going to be in trouble. Once I got up to the bathroom, I peeked around the corner and found Jerry with toothpaste on his face, as if it were shaving crème. Poor guy.  I commented,”Oh man!  You are going to smell so good today.” and proceeded to get us both all cleaned up.

As a tip to all of you who care for someone with dementia.  Don’t do as I do.  The fewer the words, the better they will respond.  For some reason they cannot process too many fast words.  For instance, for best results I could have said, “Let’s brush our teeth.” and walked upstairs with him. PERIOD!

See what you’re in for Loretta?