Extreme Knitting Redhead: No wheels on my wagon......

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

No wheels on my wagon......

Well so much for my no-alcohol-until-after-the-Brighton-marathon nonsense. We had a lovely get-together with nearly 50 of the villagers in the local pub last night and it would have been rude not to raise a glass now wouldn't it (said very tongue-in-cheek!).

My marathon training is going well, touch wood etc etc but the speedwork is quite hard as I'm not used to doing it. The good news is that entries for the Liverpool marathon are now open and I am in which will complete my series of marathons for this year. I lived near and worked in Liverpool for many years, met Mike there and generally had a wonderful time as the people of Liverpool are great so it will be a real trip down memory lane. I'm currently working on a link between revisiting my past and how the brains of dementia sufferers change as the disease progresses.

In knitting news I'm well ahead with Two although the sizing is small even though my tension is spot-on which is rather annoying as I didn't really want a close fitting garment.

There is, however, an elephant in the room. More specifically it's in my favourite hiding place alongside the settee and it's in a knitting bag. I've tried to ignore it but it's too lovely a piece to leave as a UFO for any longer.

Its the beautiful Oregon cardigan in the Autumn colourway.

I put her to one side when Mike went into hospital at the end of 2009, finished off the first sleeve when he came out of hospital in January 2010 but then I put her to one side because I associated her with bad things happening (yes I know it's silly!).

Every so often I'd notice the bag when I was hoovering the carpet but then I would turn away again.

Now I've decided I need to get her finished as I need a more interesting knit to get my teeth into whilst I finish off Two. So, tomorrow evening I shall make a start. That may sound as if I'm procrastinating by not doing anything this evening but I can't because I shall be at my German evening class. I started learning German at the end of last year and although it isn't easy it's a good challenge.

1 comment:

Linda said...: The Oregon sweater is lovely. I can't wait to see it modeled on you. A belated Happy New Year to you and your family.; January 31, 2011 at 6:24:00 AM PST

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.