My sister, Polly VonBoeckman

Yesterday Michelle, Richie and I went to see my sister Polly at Agape Village in Hazel Green, Ala. I hadn't seen her in almost two years and this was my first visit since she had moved to this facility. It breaks my heart to see her. Her husband, Buddy, first noticed her mind getting bad when our Mother was still alive. I remember him telling me about some of the things she would do twelve-thirteen years ago. At this time she was not much older than I am now. At first it was hard for me to tell the difference but as time went on I, too could see the problems she was having. They lived in Horn Lake/Southaven, MS and the traffic was terrible. Buddy had hearing and eye problems and Polly would always drive. She had been involved in one bad accident but had walked away with no injuries. After that Buddy would always go with her. She would laugh and say that they could go anywhere since he would tell her where to go and she would just follow his directions!
As time went by I could tell that she was steadily getting worse. Buddy's health was failing and although I don't know for sure I think she had began to get a little mean to him. Finally there came a time when they could no longer live alone. They fought it until their son had no choice but to find a place close to him where they could live. Shortly after that Buddy had to go to a nursing home where he could have twenty-four hour care. It was just as well since now she looks at a picture of him and doesn't know who he is.
Polly is sixteen years older than me and we had one sister who was the oldest and one year older than Polly. She died of cancer in 1968 at age forty-four. Of the eight children in our family I am the baby.
In the almost two years Polly has been in Agape, my husband and I have had health problems and I have not been able to travel the one hundred plus miles to visit. I have missed seeing her so much. Finally my younger sister told me that if I wanted to see her while she would still know me I really needed to visit. My daughter, Michelle and I traveled to Huntsville and met my youngest brother's son, Richie and we went to visit with her.
I was really prepared for the worse but she was in much better condition than I had
anticipated. She has lost weight and is now gray headed. That is one of the things she and I always teased about. She hated gray hair and always kept hers so neat and dyed. When I started to gray at an early age, I really liked it, but she would say " Why don't you do something about that gray hair? It makes you look older". And I would laugh and say. "Well, at least I know what color mine is!" Now she is gray and I can't believe how much she looks like me and our mother. I never before thought that she looked like me, but now she does. she certainly doesn't look like she is eighty-five years old. I think I have more wrinkles than she does!
I cried when I first saw her and I cried again when I left. I don't know if I will see her again and if I do she might not know who I am. She did know me this time but I am sure that the minute I walked out the door she forgot I had been there. She didn't remember my other sister being there and I guess what hurt me most was when she ask us when we had talked to Gladys, even through Gladys had died before Michelle and Richie was born. We just pretended we hadn't seen her in a while, and she accepted that.
I don't know what will happen to me in the future. After seeing Polly and knowing my brother, Billy, is bedridden with what is also probably a form of Alzheimer's, and knowing that three of my sibling died at a young age with no way of knowing if they would have problems or not, I have decided that it is time to talk to my Neurologist next week and discuss what my options are. Since I had one massive stroke and have scar tissue from the blood clot I had, perhaps I need to take some medication to see if I can prolong my own mental loss. I hope I do not get like she is or Billy. It is hard for me and I can only imagine how it must be for their spouses and children.
I think the thing that strikes me most about both of them is the vacant look in their eyes. Both of them have the same look, almost as if they themselves are not really there anymore, but just a shell of themselves. Alzheimer's hurts everyone!

Pictures of my trip to the West!!!!

My vacation to the Grand Canyon!

On Tuesday May 4, Jim and I and our best friends, Bobby and Judy left for Arizona and the Grand Canyon. We had panned to go there in 1998 but three weeks before we were to leave I suffered a massive stroke that no one thought I would recover from. I spent the entire summer learning to walk and do all the things that we all take for granted. Since that time I have progressed to walking with a cane but we all have had medical problems that we thought would keep us from going. Bobby and Judy had traveled to California to see their daughter and had seen it at that time, but we still talked about going together. Bobby was diagnosed with cancer and after taking chemo/radiation was waiting for surgery and we just decided now was the right time.
We were gone for nine days. The Grand Canyon was awesome. Everyone should see it in their lifetime. The weather was good and we saw no accidents while we were gone.
We took the southern route traveling I-40 as we went west. We made a detour in New Mexico to visit Roswell. My husband is a big UFO fan and loves to see anything on them. It was a little disappointing that they will not even let you go near Area 51 but Judy bought him a Roswell tag for his pickup.
We would really have liked to have spent more time at the Canyon. The crowds were small and you could find good places to sit or stand and just look and reflect. We have an awesome God who can create something this beautiful. It is so peaceful and all the pictures I have seen and the ones that I took can never do it justice!
After leaving the Canyon we drove through the Navajo Nation of Arizona stopping to spend the night at a motel on the reservation. Everyone we saw (except for a few tourists) were full blooded American Indians. Even all the workers at McDonalds! We really enjoyed seeing how they lived. It is certainly different from what we had thought.
We then continued to the four corners. We wanted to stop at the monument but it was closed for repairs. I am still not sure if we went through Utah but we were so close that I know we could have spit on it!!!
Driving through the Rockies in Colorado was one of the highlights of our trip. We would think we were in a valley and then see a sign, Altitude 6352 FT. There were snow capped mountains all around. One time we came around a curve and there was a waterfall which fell 105 feet from a cliff. It was beautiful. Judy walked in the snow and Bobby made a snowball. We then went a little higher to a scenic spot and the wind was so bad I could barely stand to make pictures!
We then traveled into the lower part of Kansas, stopping at Dodge City to spend the night. We had planned to tour the Old Western Town but during the night we had a hail storm and the next morning the fog was so bad we couldn't really see anything so we decided to travel on.
We went to Wichita and then headed south. My great nephew, Brad, is the Chief of Police in Belle Plain just south of Wichita. I knew since he was my friend on Facebook he would be following where I was each night so we decided to just surprise him and we did. We were able to have lunch with him, his wife , his baby daughter, and one of their sons. The other one was at school so we missed him.
After we left Belle Plaine , we traveled on to Fort Smith, Arkansas where we spent our last night. Little did I know the surprise that was waiting for me at home!
I had been talking for some time about redoing my kitchen. When we bought this house six years ago it was a foreclosure and we had done some remodeling, painting the brown bead board yellow and the brown trim work white. This had brightened the room a lot but over the years I had gotten tired of the yellow and had picked out a Terra cotta color that I liked. I was in bad need of a new ventahood since mine make a terrible noise and didn't work. But all I had done was talk about it and never really expected to get it done any time soon. Unknown to me my daughters and my husband planned a remodel while we were gone on our trip. He would talk to them each day to see how it was going and I didn't even know it!
When we got home and I walked in the door, I felt like I was on HGTV! My kitchen was so beautiful. My daughters are so talented. Jan had changed the color slighly and the one she chose was much better than the one I had chosen. My yellow walls were terra cotta, I had white painted cabinets, new cabinet pulls, a new ventahood, new shelves on one wall, and a major cleaning. It is so beautiful. I am so lucky to have daughters who are so talented, a son-in-law who is also a handyman and a grandson who works in maintenance for a nursing home and loves to use his new knowledge to help me. They only spent $300.00 but it looks like a million dollars!! I am still amazed to think that they love me that much that they would spend that much time for me!! I love my husband and my family and I am the luckiest mother, grandmother, and great grandmother in the world! I love my family!!!!