The Post Most Challenging - # 20

     The March Slice of Life Challenge is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at their blog,

Two Writing Teachers.

      This is a most challenging post.  I feel I need to tell, but it isn’t easy.  I want those of you who have become my blogging friends to know why I never write about my husband of forty-seven years. 

Since 2008 we’ve lived with a disease called Parkinson’s.  Except for a new medicine regime, it didn’t affect our lives very much.  We read, we studied; we found a good doctor and joined a support group.  My husband was retired so we didn’t have to worry about work complications.  We did as much traveling as possible, like taking our grandson on wonderful trips, appropriate to his age.  Some of you might remember that I wrote last summer about our trip to Sanibel Island.  As my husband swam several times a week, and we both walked for exercise, and that helped his health.  I was given the chance to move out of the classroom and become a literacy coach part time.  Life seemed fine. 

       But it wasn’t really.  I’ve become a Caregiver.  And I’ve slowly lost parts of my husband as the days pass by.   

       Parkinson’s disease sometimes is accompanied by another insidious component, called Lewy Body Dementia.  And because my husband, by doing a quirky thing here and an odd driving decision there, our doctor suggested that he get tested to see if cognitive areas were changing.  They were, and a few suggestions were made, in addition to prescriptions added.  Our lives narrowed because my husband’s drivers’ license was revoked.  He began to miss going to lunch with friends, running to the grocery store, and other trips we take so for granted because he couldn’t drive. 

       In this past year, really since last March when I started blogging, my husband’s cognitive health has deteriorated.  Many ideas help, but things can only be slowed, not stopped.  I am the caregiver (another story).  I want everyone to know that my husband has been a special father, a wonderful husband, a great brother, uncle, son, and a successful entrepreneur.  Someday I will write with special authority about my life with my husband. I have that authority because of my love and respect for him as my life’s companion. 

        My family emergency that I referred to yesterday has to do with my husband.  His ability to function well has deteriorated drastically since the school year began.  There have been good days and those not so good, some challenging and many doable.  But over the weekend, I’ve had to make some drastic changes.  He’s now in a hospital, waiting for a “bed” in a geriatric behavior center.  He won’t stay there; it’s just for assessment, but our lives once again will have to find a way to return a sense of living comfortably.  I’m not sure when he will return home.  Hopefully with a reassessment of his meds, some good R & R, it will be soon. I just don’t know. 

         I want to continue the March challenge and I know I’ll have time to write, and I will try to comment as much as I can. 

Please accept my gratitude for all your good wishes.  They mean a lot.