Extreme Knitting Redhead: RED January

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Happy New Year

May 2020 be the decade that brings more love and kindness throughout the whole world.

New Year, new goals. I love making lists of things to do as Mike will attest!

* Of course I have more fund-raising for ARUK planned, with another 100 mile event in the Summer and lots of marathons and ultra-marathons as training runs.

* I also have big plans for the garden, which needs a major re-design.

* In early January I'll be embarking on another wave of the Six Pack Revolution (SPR) which has had a refresh and the orginal 90 day plan has been cut to 75 days whilst still achieving the same amazing results. I did the 'Intensive' plan during the time I was absent from here and although it was much harder physically I really enjoyed it.

* As usual I'm doing RED January (ie Run Every Day a minimum of 5k) and no alcohol until after SPR has finished.

* Knitting - I'm swatching for a lovely Kimono from Amirisu magazine at the moment.

* Crochet. I'm gathering colour ideas for the Kaleidoscope Cal which starts soon. I'm using Rowan Summer Tweed from stash and these are my proposed colours so far:

Interesting to see how much the colours change in artifical light and daylight.

I also started playing with the colours using the handy planner provided:

* But to start the year well I need to get out for a run now! I was supposed to be doing a marathon last week but Mike was unwell so I stayed close to home.

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.