A (n)ice, neat idea

My husband loved his ice cubes. He was also a single malt Scotch guy. As his dementia progressed, his Scotch days came to a halt but his love of ice did not.

He did not like ice in his mouth. Instead, he loved the sound of ice against a glass. As his dementia became even more pronounced, the sound of ice cubes tinkling against metal thrilled him. I would stir cubes in a small, metal mixing bowl for his entertainment. Hey, you do what you have to.

One day he reached in, grabbed a cube and shoved it into his mouth. He nearly choked so I started freezing small cups of water which made the ice bigger, thus reducing the probability of swallowing. By the time the cubes melted to choking size, Martin's thoughts were elsewhere and I'd toss them in a nearby plant.

Then a friend told me about an ice cube tray that made mighty size cubes and I was hooked and my husband was safer.

But what was to become of my old ice cube trays?

Prest-o, change-o. One still serves as a kind of jewelry box for earrings, ornamental dress pins and the like, and the other tray sits in another drawer holding nails, screws, thumb tacks and push pins. 

Among the top takeaways from my caregiving days was ease in finding mah stuff. Oh, how I hated digging through a pile in search of something. With the ice cube trays I can easily see what I need, grab it and go.    

So simple.