Lilybird, Lily, or Nana Lily are the affectionate names we call my mother who lived with us for 3 years. Living in the moment is a reflection of our family’s decision to focus on the humorous aspects of our journey through Alzheimer’s disease. This blog is inspired by her courage, stubbornness, and humor living with this relentless disease. I hope you enjoy my posts and may my posts encourage you to look through the clouds for a ray of sunshine.
A good friend of Miles that Matter (my running group) and a well known TV personality in Dayton passed away. Carl Day known as the Voice of Dayton was a wonderful man who I felt very honored to have met. My running friend Denise had a very special friendship with him and was a great comfort to him and his family. Below are pictures from the WPAF marathon 2009.
Leigh Ann, myself, and Carl Day
Picture of the big screen as Carl (in center with walker) crosses the finish line with Miles that Matter.
Catalina mountains ("Emily's Mountain") in Tucson which she can see from her picture window. This picture was actually taken from the top (5th floor) of the downtown Tucson parking garage where her dance company "New Articulations" performed.
The Audience at New Articulations dance show
The backdrop for the dancers
The Dancers
Dinner after the show with Aunt Mollie and Sue. Their last night in Tucson.
The story behind this video is that while in Cabo last spring Ryan and his buddy Austin decided to get henna tattoos on the beach. (Henna tattoos last a couple of weeks)
Ryan came up with the idea to put the phrase that Lily uses so often on his arm to get her reaction when we got home. You just witnessed her reaction.
Mom has repeated this one German line for years now. The story goes that when she was a young girl in England she met a German man who taught her this saying. She always said the meaning was not very nice, but was never able to translate it for us.
Well this past week Jenny, my daughter-in-law, kept mom with her for a day and had her out with her talking to her neighbor. Somehow it came out that the neighbor speaks fluent German. Jenny had Lily repeat the saying and the neighbor translated it as follows.
"You all truly are a shitty people."
Only mom who has forgotten so many other more important events would continue to remember this!
Married 29 years to Dan, mother of two, Emily age 23 and Ryan age 20,step mom to Chris and Jenny, Grammy to Caleb and Hannah, daughter of Lily who was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2007, two pugs Molly and Rudi, 2 cats Wilson and Lucy Lu.