Monday, August 18, 2008

heartbreaker

Our 80 something neighbor stumbled in her thick shoes over the lawn. My wife sensed distress and sent me to meet her halfway. She was disheveled and weepy and her greyish blue hair wisped about in the wind.

She sat down in the grass and told me the horrible news. Her husband had left her that morning. He ran off with a girlfriend, and she used the word 'bitch' and immediatley appologized with embarrassment.

Now I was the one who was panicked and waved my wife over. Do you tell her that you know for a fact he didnt cheat on her? Do you remind her that he's been dead for 25 years? Oh Boy....

7 comments:

Leonesse said...

Oh how very sad. What did you do?

Lori Stewart Weidert said...

Awww, the poor little lamb. Sighhhh.

Chris the Hippie said...

Hoo boy.

Both my grandparents on my mom's side had dementia. It really hurts to see it... Before we took him to the home, Grandpa started having a hard time recognizing us. He got into a fight with my dad one day, thinking my dad was there to "step out" with Grandma. From Grandpa's perspective, he went to pick tomatoes out of the garden and came back in to see a strange man having coffee with his wife...

My grandmother, years later, got very upset at my wife, Dagmar. We went to visit Grandma in the home, and as usual we introduced ourselves (a painful process indeed). "Hi Wanda," Dagmar said, "We're here to visit. I'm Dagmar, Chris' wife. Do you remember Chris? He's your grandson." My very elegant and proper grandmother looked up at Dagmar and said, "How dare you! You must be at least thirty-five years old! My grandson Chris is twelve..." I was in my late 30's. That was the last time she remembered my name...

steakbellie said...

It's all very sad and scarey. There's actually a wonderful neighbor that lives in between us and she called the old womans son for us.

Apparently she's starting to have more freuent episodes like this and was even found withdrawing money from the bank. Not good.

We've lived here for 8 years and this woman just loves me. She calls the cops on everybody else, but I could paint my house Zebra striped and it would be ok. She's NEVER gotten my wife's name correct and usually calls her 'Sally'.

We laugh like hell at that one.

Anonymous said...

Oh that is so sad.

ginger b said...

It’s not the dementia that's disheartening, it’s the fact that she thinks he ran out on her.

If you're going to lose it, at least you should be able to create happy, false memories.

Pearl said...

wow, powerful wretched thing this human mind.