RETROSPECTIVE

TBT: Ah, spring

Windows are open so use your 'inside voice'

Before there was Dementia Dame, the website, there was Dementia Dame, the Facebook page. Today, we throw it back to a FB post from the past when The Dememtia Dame tried her hand at poetry.

Ah, spring.

A time of renewal

When birds are singing,

Flowers are blooming

And Martin yells up the stairs

At 9 at night

And asks his very tired wife

For the fifth time

"Where is the calming lavender spray?"

And his wife

Who is trying to do five things at once

Yells back, “DANGNABBIT, I SAID IT’S IN THE BASKET ON THE NIGHTSTAND NEAR YOUR SIDE OF THE BED!’’

Then you look over

At the open window

And think, “Oh, crap. Can't use my winter voice, anymore.’’

Ah, spring

A time of year

When neighbors are out for late night walks

With their dogs

And you hope they don't overhear you

And you hope they don’t call social services

Because

Their poor neighbor has dementia

And they just heard his wife scream at him

Something about "embalming cadavers in May"

When you know it was "calming lavender spray."

You think back to the caregivers’ advice:

“Never yell at your loved ones.’’

Hmmm…

There’s YELLING and there’s MEAN-SPIRITED-I-WILL-KILL-YOU-WHERE-YOU-STAND YELLING!!!!

This is run-of-the-mill marriage loudness

In part because your loved one is becoming deaf as a post

And it’s 9 at night

And you’ve answered this question how many times?

(And if you are a wife--even if your husband does not have dementia--this is oh too familiar territory.)

In a few months

The cold will come

The birds and snowbirds will head south to Coral Gables

The flowers will say buh-bye

And the windows will once again close

Ah, winter

My friend.