For the past few years, Kate as worked jigsaw puzzles on her iPad while I watched the evening news. Now that she is less able to work her puzzles, we are trying to adapt. Without her iPad, she has little to do in the evening. When we return home from dinner, I usually ask if she would like to work on her puzzles. Sometimes she does; sometimes she doesn’t.
Last night, she asked if there was something she could read. What she was really asking is “What can I do now?” I always mention her puzzles, one of her family photo books, watch the news with me, or watch musical performances on YouTube. Last night, she said she wanted to work puzzles. I brought her iPad to her, but she changed her mind. Then I handed her the “Big Sister” album her brother Ken had made for her. This has been a big success since he gave it to her almost two years ago.
As she looked at it, she said, “What do I do?” I told her she could look through it and enjoy the many pictures of her and Ken and their family. She didn’t understand. (This is an experience that happens frequently now. For example, it happens when I give her the toothbrush to brush her teeth. Sometimes it occurs when I open the car door for her.) I tried to explain by commenting on several pictures.
This turned out to be one of those times when she thinks her photo book works like her iPad. She touches a photo and waits for something to happen. Once or twice I have observed her looking at other albums or magazines and doing the same thing. In those instances, she didn’t seem bothered by the fact that nothing happened. That wasn’t true last night. She wanted me to help her, but I found that an impossible task. Nevertheless, she was interested, and I really wanted to help her.
I told her the first thing to know was that touching the picture won’t do anything. I explained that she should just look at a picture and enjoy what she sees. I gave her a chance to try it. She immediately touched a photo and waited for something to happen. I reminded her that nothing would happen. I knew my efforts were likely to fail, but I spent about ten minutes trying to teach her how to enjoy the photos.
Finally, I suggested that we turn on the TV and pull up some Andre Rieu concerts on YouTube. That turned out to be a winner. Music came to the rescue again. I didn’t get to watch the news, but I took my shower and watched with her. We spent almost two and a half hours with Andre. It turned out to be a good evening after all.
As useful as some of the old tools in my box can be, it’s always nice to have new things I can add. Last week, I saw an ad on Facebook that said the company could compile a book of the photos I had posted over the past decade. The idea intrigued me, and I made the purchase immediately. The book arrived on Monday, and I was looking for the right moment to show it to Kate. Yesterday afternoon was a good time. She has rested about two hours, and it was still too early for us to do to dinner. I told her I had something to show her, and we both took a seat on the sofa. It’s a big book with 550 photos, so I was unsure how far we would get. As it turned out, we came close to looking at the whole thing. I was surprised. Recently, she has gotten tired when we have looked at some of her other photo books. Personally, I did find it a lot to go through in one sitting, but I was encouraged by her response and will look forward to looking at it again.
If any of you are thinking of having a book like this, I would suggest you do it more carefully than I did. During the ordering process, the company gave me a chance to edit. I thought it was too much trouble. For my purposes, I still think that was true. If I were doing it again, I would go through the entire book and delete unwanted photos and also change the order in which some of them appear. In my case, the book meets my needs. It gives me one other thing I can use with Kate to make her day and mine more enjoyable.
