Like it is

WALLY HALL: Mom's a blessing, even in face of Alzheimer's

At first, mom fought it.

We knew she would -- walkers are for old people and mom just doesn't see herself that way.

Besides, she didn't remember falling and breaking her hip, and only when pressed about it will she admit she isn't walking quite right for some reason.

A year ago mom fell and broke her hip, and at 94 the fatality rate is high, very high. So my sisters Lola and Sue, nieces and nephews, and yours truly took up a 24-hour watch in her room at Baptist Health Medical Center.

We had some issues that first weekend. Not with Baptist or the nurses, they were great, and definitely not with the surgeon as he saw her every day.

Apparently, doctors not on staff are allowed to take rounds for other doctors on the weekend. We never saw her substitute doctor. Not once. And yours truly was looking hard. The first 48 hours were hard.

Mom's on numerous medications for dementia and Alzheimer's, high blood pressure, anxiety, etc., and anyone who deals with a loved one with Alzheimer's knows it's hard and sometimes all you can do is laugh. Taking mom off all her medications was not a laughing matter, but that's what the visiting doctor did.

A complaint was filed with the medical board and nothing happened, but mom was more than ready to go home the next week -- although she kept asking why we had dad's walker. We didn't, it was a new one, but we did finally bring dad's old one thinking she might take to it quicker. She didn't.

On April 27, the entire immediate family met at Foxridge in Bryant to celebrate Mom's 95th birthday.

She was happy to have everyone together, although we aren't sure she knew why we were there. When other patients came into the day room, mom insisted they be given cake and ice cream, so she might have had an idea it was her birthday.

Mom always has been a nurturer when it came to visitors.

Mom was always loving with her own family, but having grown up during the Depression she was strict about things, too. Like working. We all started earning money as teenagers.

A few years ago this annual column got mom's age wrong by a year, and she chewed my behind off.

Today most of us are celebrating Mother's Day at my niece and nephew's house, Tammy and Loren Hatfield. My sisters will get Mom, and we'll help her into the house. At family get-togethers, Loren's mom Tonyia spends one-on-one time with Mom and makes her feel special.

And she is.

Mom still tries to read the Bible and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (and it better be delivered every day), and if the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Razorbacks are on TV -- and it doesn't matter the sport -- she tries to watch. The key word is tries.

She still feeds herself and gets dressed every morning. She walks to the dining room for her meals, and everyone there calls her Mrs. Eva and treats her like she is their mom. She's using her walker now.

Sometimes she says she wishes she could go home, where she lived for 47 years until she couldn't take care of herself.

A neighbor caught her trying to climb a two-story ladder to climb through a window she kept cracked in case she locked herself out. She was 91. That same year she tried to cut a tree down in her front yard, saying indignantly that she had always done her own yard work.

One visit we found her walking in front of her house, getting a little exercise, in her socks.

"Trying to toughen up the bottom of my feet," she said without hesitation.

We are blessed to have mom today, although there is nothing funny about Alzheimer's. But sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

Sports on 05/13/2018

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