Snow

My daughter is staying with me, temporarily, sleeping in the flat out the back. Mum is giving her a bad time. She says things like:

*I hate you. You're not my granddaughter
*You're trying to have me locked up
*Get out, I never want to see you again
*You're a liar
*You're trying to poison your mother and take the house
*This is my house, and I'm telling you to get out of it

As a result, my daughter doesn't really ever want to see her again. Who would want to remember their grandmother being like this?
I have lost my son, months ago. He was furious I've allowed this madness into our home. He moved out and he won't even visit.
Alzheimers has wrecked the remnants of our small family. My brother and his eldest daughter left the scene years ago. Mum didn't even get a call from them on her 86th birthday. They were in denial about the Alzheimers, and believe that I am taking financial advantage of Mum by lying about her condition.

This time of year, we always travel to the snow and spend a few days in a cabin out in the bush.

I wondered whether we should do it, given her terrible behaviour, and the fact there's only one toilet in the cabin, and she would be sure to dirty it at least once a day.

My daughter finally agreed to come with us on our snow trip.

Mum is generally well behaved when in the car. She likes travelling. It was a 7 hour trip up there (with a few stops).

At times Mum was horrible, but a lot of the time she seemed to be enjoying herself. And when we came back home, she kept saying, "I can't forget how beautiful the snow looked." So she's even remembering the trip, which is very surprising, given that she doesn't remember what happened ten seconds ago.

My daughter said this should be the last snow trip for her, as she was extremely difficult and the stress of keeping the bathroom clean, and using public toilets, was hard. But I'm glad we did take her this last time.

Dead Horse Gap - the snow starting to melt for spring

Hiking at Dead Horse Gap, Snowy Mountains Highway

Perisher Valley

Mum took this picture of our campsite

The Cascades, Dead Horse Gap

Mount Blue Cow

Two days of 'nice', thanks to the Commonwealth Bank

I can't believe it. For the past 2 days, Mum has been 'nice'. I can't recall any 'nice' days in years. She's always belligerent, nasty, paranoid and generally horrible. But yesterday and today, she's done nothing wrong. She's done everything I asked her to. She hasn't minded my supervising the toilet and shower. She hasn't demanded that the cats be let in at night.

It's funny, but on Saturday night I had to ring the Commonwealth Bank to re-invest Mum's money. It was the only time I had the time to do it. The lady who answered the phone could hear Mum playing up in the background and said she'd say a prayer for her.

Well, maybe it's co-incidence, but it appears to have worked.

Mum on Anzac Day wearing Uncle Jim's medals

Mum on her 86th birthday, 13th September 2012