I may have mentioned in an earlier post that Kate has worked with PEO on a scholarship program for deserving women. They have concentrated their efforts on women who have been out of school and are now trying to complete their degrees. Most of them are single mothers who are working in low-paying jobs while going to school at night. They also are women who are trying to complete their undergraduate degrees.
At any rate, over the past two years Kate has had some difficulty taking care of the various tasks that have fallen to her. In some instances she has simply not acted to send letters or get information that was needed. This year she has been much better at addressing her responsibilities. I think this is a function of her co-chair’s being out of the country during a significant part of the process. Kate really cares about this program and wanted this year’s applicants to get help from the national office of PEO. The issue this year was that she had to devote so much time to write letters of reference and to complete an online form that was required by the sponsoring PEO Chapter C. She wrote, rewrote, and rewrote again the letters until it was almost too late to submit them.
However, she received two letters from the national office on Tuesday of this week. I had brought in the mail and sorted out hers and mine. I left hers on the island in the kitchen in an obvious place so that she would notice them. I suspected they might be decision letters on their two applicants and that she would do the same and open them quickly. On Thursday morning when she still had not opened the envelopes, I opened them. Each was a letter announcing that one of the applicants had received an award and inclosing a check. In other words, both of the applicants received awards – 1 for $2,200, the other for $1,500. When Kate got up, I told her I had good news. She was thrilled. She had worked hard and was successful in getting her candidates through the process. Once again, it is a good example of how someone with Alzheimer’s can be both successful and unsuccessful. It is simply hard for her to focus on anything even something as important as this was to her.
Last night we went to the Bijou to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In the car on the way to the theater we talked about books we were listening to. She is listening to her first Donna Leon Guido Bruneti novel. I have read (listened to) 8 of them and was curious about her reactions. I asked her to tell me something, and she said, “Don’t ask me anything.” It wasn’t said harshly and I never interpreted it that way. What she was really saying was, “I am unable to articulate or express what you want to know. Be patient with me.”
