The Eternal Optimist

Hello Everyone:

Another Wednesday is slowly winding down.  Fortunately no disasters today, so I'll call it a good day.  The Brit BF was sounding a little down about his mom yesterday.  His mom has Alzheimer's Disease and suffered a stroke a few months ago.  She's been in the hospital since then and may finally be coming home.  That's the good news.  The bad news is there's no cure for Alzheimer's.  The Brit BF is an eternal optimist.  He likes to see the people in his life happy.  A nice thing but this is not always the case.  He loves his mom and doesn't want to see her fade away but there are moments when he gets subtle reminders of this sad fact.  For example, he and his sister have been taking training classes on how to use the bed lift.  While he feels confident in his ability to operate the device, it's another reminder that his mom's world is shrinking.  No child, I don't care how much you despise your parents, wants to watch their mom or dad disappear.  This what Alzheimer's does, it slowly takes away loved ones.  He already lost his father and a brother.  So much sadness in his family.  I can understand why he's drawn to comedy.  Aside from the fact he's naturally funny, he just wants a way to cope with the sadness.  I can wrap my head around that.  We all have constructive ways of dealing with the pain in our lives.  My way is to write and occasionally eat my feelings, last Tuesday being a good example.  But that peanut butter chocolate cheesecake was soooooo good.  Anyway, I do my best to be the supportive girlfriend, which is all I can do.  I just tell that this is the nature of his mom's illness.  One day she's lively and next day she's cranky.  You just have to go with the flow.