Alzheimer's

My Grandmother.

Brooke combing Granny's hair.

Granny, with three of her Great Grands.

I hate the terrible disease. This is a sad thing to see anybody go through. This terrible disease robs the mind.
My sweet grandmother has been going through this for the past year. Things are getting worse with her. Many times she will not know me. My mom is the most faithful daughter in the world. She goes to see my grandmother every day. She has done this all my life. She don't miss a day unless she is sick or a emergency comes up. My mom has always been the one who takes my grandmother places. It makes me so sad when she does not know my mom. My grandmother is still living by herself. She has a little room connected to my Aunts house. Many times my Aunt will go check on her, and she don't know she is her daughter. Many times she still knows us. She will tell us things that happened years ago. The next minute she will blank out and say "now who did you say you was?"
My grandmother loves Courtney. She has always been close to her. We went to visit her last week and she did not know who Courtney was. Now do you understand why I hate this disease? I have tears in my eyes as I type this. My grandmother has been robbed of her mind. God has allowed my grandmother to live 88 years. I am thankful for that. I just feel so sad for her. She adores Brooke. Brooke adores her. Brooke has been in love with my grandmother from day one. I never told my grandmother we was adopting. We all felt it would be to much on her knowing that me and Courtney was on a plane. I will never forget the day we brought Brooke home and took her to see my grandmother. We walked in and my grandmother says " Who's baby is that?" We told her that she was ours. She did not believe us. When we finally convinced her that Brooke was really ours, she could not stop smiling. She hugged her and kissed her. Brooke went right to my grandmother. Brooke has always went straight to my grandmother. She kisses her and treats her like a Queen. Brooke adores my grandmother. Many times Brooke would go to my grandmother before she would others.
I have many good memories with my grandmother. I can remember as a child going to her house. I guess I have some of my best memories there. I would fix her hair. She would spoil me really good. She would pop me pop corn and anything I wanted that she had. She could make the best cornflake pies. She would make the crust out of cornflakes and then make a chocolate filling.
I will never forget the day she saw Courtney. My grandmother knew of my struggles with infertility. She was so happy when I got pregnant. The day Courtney was born my grandmother could not be there, because she had just had surgery. We came home and went by my Aunts house, so my grandmother could hold Courtney. My grandmother started crying when she held Courtney. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a heart pin. She gave it to me. It had number one mom on it. It was hooked to a little card. Talking about touching, I was touched. Seeing my grandmother cry, was hard on me. I am so thankful for all the good memories I have with her.
My grandmother is having dementia also. She is seeing things that is not there. It is funny to here some of the stuff she says. Courtney don't understand and she can't help but laugh. My grandmother will start telling me to look out the window at those men in the trees. She says they have been working all day in those trees. She also talks about apple trees. She sees people outside in a apple orchard picking apples. One day she said there was little girl outside playing by herself and nobody was watching her. It breaks my heart to see this happening to her. I miss the grandmother I used to have. I wish this terrible disease would go away. I heard a story one time about a little girl who would have bad dreams. The little girl would say "GO AWAY BAD DREAM. BOO. GO AWAY BAD DREAM BOO" The bad dream would go away. I wish I could say this, and this terrible disease that has robbed my grandmothers mind would go away. I love her so much.