As I had hoped, we got our week off to a good start. I didn’t have to struggle with Kate to get her up. When I checked on her around 10:30, she was awake and quite cheerful. We had no trouble getting to lunch and back by the time the sitter arrived at 1:00. Not only that, but Kate was happy to see Cindy and didn’t express any reluctance about my leaving. She was tired and getting ready to rest. When I returned home, she was still resting. Cindy said she hadn’t moved from the sofa the entire time I was gone. She was glad to see me.
We went out for our regular Mexican meal at Chalupas where we enjoyed our meal and conversation. As she does more often these days, she wanted me to sit beside her in the booth rather than across the way I normally do. This was another occasion when we were the recipients of the kindness of strangers. We were earlier than usual, and there were only a couple of other parties there when we arrived. One of them was a young couple seated across the room from us. The man was African American and the young lady with him was Asian. They were almost twenty feet apart, and we never spoke. They left about fifteen minutes before we did. They walked past us, and the man said, “Have a good night.” When it was time for our check, our server told us it was taken care of. I was surprised and thought the restaurant was treating us. That’s when he said it was paid for by the couple who just left.
That is the third time we have had that experience in the past few months. In the other two cases, however, I knew or had a pretty good idea of who the people were. They were people who are well aware of Kate’s Alzheimer’s. This time it was a couple we had never seen before, and our server said he had never seen them in the restaurant before.
I wonder what prompted them to do this. I do know that Kate is very slow, and it took a long time for me to help her take off her sweater and then to be seated. The couple may have noticed and thought Kate was handicapped in some way. Our server suggested that not many couples sit side-by-side in a booth unless they are with another couple. Maybe they were taken with an old couple who are still in love. Whatever it was, it made quite an impression on us.
The rest of our evening went well as it usually does. I am glad that we can have days like this even at this late stage of Kate’s Alzheimer’s.
