It's normal to have thoughts like, "There COULDN'T be another family as crazy as mine!" But, oh, you'd be surprised. Here's a few nuggets (all true) from some other families:
• My friend R.'s parents, married for almost 50 years and in their eighties, decided to get divorced. They just had enough of each other, but after the divorce, there were some questions about Social Security payments now that Mom and Dad were separate entities. Mom (who had initiated the divorce proceedings) decided it would be prudent to get re-married so she could keep her cash flow intact. Despite being told by their adult children that they had already been married long enough so that their Social Security wouldn't change either way, the parents went ahead and got remarried anyway. Unfortunately, Dad, now in his late eighties and spending more and more time in the hospital, just wasn't 100% compos mentis anymore. When Mom came to the hospital for the ceremony, Dad only had one whispered question for R., who stood next to him:"Pssst-who is that woman I just married?"...
• Another friend of mine, G., has a grandmother who had been a high-ranking employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. Well over ninety years of age, she had begun a retreat into the recesses of her mind and memory, and was starting to spontaneously recite still-classified CIA case histories. The other residents and attendants of the nursing home where she lived asked what Grandma was talking about, and her grandson knew that she was referring to actual cases. Nervously, he replied, "Well, you know...she's just nuts!"
• In one friend's family, his mother (well into her eighty's) would go into the supermarket, find the aisle with the bread, open one of the loaves, stick her hand in and squeeze the bread to determine the freshness. When confronted by her adult son about this practice, she responded, "What's the matter? I'm clean!!!"...
Check out my website: http://www.jamielegon.com to see an excerpt from my book FEET FIRST-Riding the Elder Care Rollercoaster with My Father, engage in my conversations on aging as well as other topics, or to contact me directly...
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