When last I was here, my aunt had just passed and my mom had returned home. Then all hell broke loose.
On Monday, Bryan came by to let me know that he’d bought the house from Stefan. He wanted to let us know that he planned to move in and that we’d have to stuff everything in storage and/or the Wendy House and live there. We tried to explain that this just wasn’t viable. We wasted our breath. Shock. Horror. Disbelief. A week later, we were told we had to totally leave the property. Leave the Wendy House…
While we were reeling from this, my Dad had a major ‘sundowners’ moment. Yelling, screaming, threatening people, etc. We called the police and the EMT’s. When all the dust settled, Dad was in hospital in Pueblo. In the mental unit. Meanwhile, we moved in with my mom, as she was very upset and didn’t want to be alone.
We have been up to see Dad. He’s been diagnosed with moderate to severe dementia and psychosis. From what the doctor and nurses said, he’s been bipolar all of his life, but could deal with it. The dementia robbed him of the control to cope. When my sister and I talked, we could see it looking back. My dad has always ‘escaped to the mountains’, and we figured he just didn’t like living in the city. Now we see it was his way of coping. Now we are working on Medicaid paperwork and other bits. It has been a crazy time.
And… in the mean time, we’ve been packing. It’s very hard to leave our home of 10 years. Hard to leave behind all the work we did on the Wendy House. We are doing our best to keep positive. It’s just tough. Brandy isn’t doing too badly. She has a new yard to explore and we hope to build her a dog house soon.
This sparked so many thoughts I must sort through them. In the meantime think like a child. When an adult sees a snowflake they think of the shopping they have to do (just in case they get snowed in), of the roads that may get blocked and the important things they may not be able to do, of cold and wet, burst pipes and mess..
A child sees a snowflake and thinks of running out to the garden to feel it melt on their tongue, they already see the snowman they will build, the snowballs they will pelt it with, the joy of a day of school and the snow angles they will make.
Take some time out for you and simple pleasures that’s what keeps us balanced on the tight rope of life