A Very Nice "Moment" with Mom

My mom has Alzheimer's.

The categories are fuzzy when you're close to it. Generally, the disease is charted as progressing through seven stages, Stage 1 being mild, Stage 7 the most severe.

In the past six months, mom has entered a higher stage. I'd probably put her in Stage 5.

Two characteristics describe the worst of it for her.

First, her memory is very bad. She still knows everyone, but she constantly repeats herself and, really, has no sense of the immediate past so, that mere minutes after we've visited her, she'll think she hasn't seen us for a year. And, that's sad because it increases her loneliness.

I've noted this before: A character on a TV show we watched observed that, at this point, you can't make memories, you can only create moments.

Second, mom's ability to hold on to the barriers in the mind that determine what is appropriate behavior is completely shot.

During our last visit, she told me that I look old and went on and on and on about my ugly beard and my saggy eyes and bad skin. Trust me, I have no problem being amused and it's a good think she did that with me. Others in the family wouldn't have accepted her commentary in as lighthearted a fashion as I did.

Anyway,...

...we visited her yesterday and found her in a public place, where people walked by and some women were nearby playing a game of cards.

Mom sat down and, for some reason sang the line from the Hank Williams song, "Hey, good lookin', what ya got cookin'? How about cookin' something up with me?"

Mom's from what could be described as an Appalachian area of Pennsylvania...more West Virginia culture than southern Pennsylvania.

She was in her teens when Hank Williams was at the height of his career. And, to be honest, I really like Hank Williams myself, though he'd died before I was born.

So,...

...I got out my phone and found a video of Hank singing, Hey, Good Lookin..." and mom was in heaven. She remembered all the words and sang along.

So we found, "Your Cheatin Heart." She sang along again...louder.

I love Patsy Cline, so we switched directions and played, "I Fall to Pieces." And, mom got really wound up.

Btw, mom is a really, really, very lousy singer. And, she either doesn't know it or, with the Alzheimer's, no longer cares.

Then we did another Hank classic, maybe, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." There was no stumping mom on the lyrics and she was getting louder with each song.

I don't think I've seen her that happy in years, certainly not since dad died.

But, she'd really turned up the volume. And, the concert was clearly disturbing people around us.

So, we suggested that we continue up in her room, which we did.

By the end, she was rattling the windows and we did lots more of Hank, Patsy Cline's great Willie Nelson song, "Crazy," and others from Patsy, some Patty Page, and others and mom didn't want to stop.

I could see some of the teenager in mom.

For Evie and me, it was a sweet memory. I'll always cherish it.

For mom, it was a nice moment that has almost certainly already been forgotten.