Last night I had the privilege of enjoying a quiet evening
with my mother and grandmother at my home baking cooking and making dinner. It
was a special time for me since I hadn’t had the chance to do this with my own
children in a couple of years. It had been a tradition of our to do. We would
stay up late, put Christmas cartoons on, and start making Christmas cookies.
The kitchen would be a mess. But last night was July 1, 2015 and my grandmother
passed away over two years ago.
I learned much of my cooking abilities from my grandmother.
She taught me all of her secrets and was constantly giving me nifty little
kitchen gadget. She always had a story to go with every scenario. She passed
while living in a home. That night we laughed and baked as we decorated
cookies. I got the privilege of writing down many of her recipes before the
night was over. And it was double special for me. I haven’t been able to follow
this same tradition with my own children in over two years. We had always put
on Christmas cartoons or music followed by spreading out of the cooking making
materials making a mess. By the time we were done the kitchen looked as if the
Keebler Elf tree had been up rooted in my kitchen.
I became frantic the next day when I couldn’t find my
recipes I copied. I searched everywhere. They were grandmother’s and I didn’t
want to lose them. But I never wrote them down to lose them. I asked my wife
about them and she never saw them and my mom never came by.
Individuals suffering from dementia will experience a range of emotions and express thoughts which appear real to them at the moment. Even though these thoughts are typically imaginary or made up, they evoke feelings that are very real to the person and often times causes extreme anxiety, panic or fear.
