This week, I visited assisted living homes with residents with dementia and Alzheimer’s. It’s always a little adventure. You never know who will remember you and who won’t. If you haven’t seen someone, you don’t always know what stage they are in, or if they have anything else going on besides dementia. My man is always happy for the regulars because he knows what to expect.
We saw quite a few regulars in the first house. The nonverbal woman who held me with heavy hands spent hours gently caressing me and smiling. I also saw the girl asking me for a high five, and the sweet couple who lived there. A man we don’t know has a visitor. I don’t think it was his son because he called him by his first name, and he and my man had a little chat while I visited.
We found some newer guys who spoke Spanish and English. One has difficulty communicating, but the other is talkative! He talked a lot about his son, who has many pets. There was also a woman we didn’t know very well who was taking a nap on the sofa. Usually we just leave them alone because my people don’t want to bother them. But he woke up and was so happy to see me!
At the second house, we saw some familiar faces, and one couple we didn’t. One was a very nice woman who spoke so well that my man didn’t realize that nothing was sinking in until he repeated the same questions over and over again. When this happens, my man always repeats the answer he didn’t say the first time. He is used to a lot of things happening.
We had a strange thing happen in the second house. There was a man in a skirt, lace top and pumps. Which my person does not find at all strange, but they speak completely incoherently and act wrongly. They really like me and caress me a lot, but my man remains vigilant because of their behavior. They followed us, talking loudly as we visited another resident. The lady was familiar with this person, and told us that they were complaining because they thought they won the Wheel of Fortune and didn’t get their money.
My man felt a little relieved after visiting the second house! He is very protective of me, and he worries when people behave erratically. But everyone, even the Wheel of Fortune guy, is really nice.
Here are some of my other visits to assisted living facilities:
