Most of the time Kate is good-natured. That is one of the reasons life has gone so well for us. There are times when she is low. Those are usually times when she is more mindful of lack of memory and inability to function the way she should. There are other times when she is unusually upbeat. Most of the time, she is somewhere in between the two extremes.
Yesterday she was in an especially good mood, and it lasted the entire day. I’m having difficulty thinking of a word that captures it. There are two things that were different. The first is that she smiled a lot. The second is that she was very agreeable and easily “rolled with the punches” when things didn’t go her way. Yesterday was the first time she has had a sitter in three weeks. I wondered if she would feel uncomfortable when the sitter arrived and I left. That was no problem at all. She seemed happy to see the sitter and not bothered in the least when I left. The same was true when I got home. She was glad to see me, there was no sign of relief as sometimes happens. She just seemed happy and nothing could change that. Above all, I didn’t see any sign of concern over Alzheimer’s symptoms.
This is not to say that her memory was any better. In fact, she seemed so happy that I found myself thinking of her the way she was before Alzheimer’s. That was quickly erased when she would ask me something like “Where is the bathroom?” in our house. I did, however, get the impression that she remembered I was her husband all day or close to it. As we neared time for bed, she said, “I want to thank you for your patience with me.” I think that was prompted by my helping a number of times with her puzzles. Shortly after that she said something that clearly acknowledged that we were married. Just as quickly that was followed by her asking my name and hers. I was just grateful to see her so at ease and happy all day.
