Gregory's Memorial

On my way out to dinner last night, the sky looked like this. I thought "Gregory has decided to begin celebrating his Memorial Open House early!

Celebrating from Afar

Today is Gregory's birthday. He is a Fourth of July Baby. We celebrate him with days off from work, picnics, fireworks, and birthday cake. We celebrate him no less today than yesterday, just differently.

I baked two pans of Brownies with walnuts yesterday and will put them in the staff office today, one for each shift, in honor of his birthday.

Yesterday, with Gregory's help (or at least he watched as I worked and explained) I decorated the dining room by adding small American flags to the flower vases on each table. Manny poked one flag in the back of Gregory's chair.

I bought three mini-bund cakes; one for Gregory- chocolate chocolate chip, one for me - lemon, and one for Manny - marble choclate. We will put a candle in Gregory's, sing the birthday song (he usually sings along,) and see if he will blow it out (if not we will help.) Then we will pig out on the cakes. Maybe we'll cut them into thirds and share the flavors! We will add boxed milk (from Gregory's refrigerator) to the mix.

I will tell Gregory that I love him at least a dozen times. He may or may not respond.

"Gregory?"
"What?"
"I love you!"
"I know" or "OK" or "Yes" or "I love you" or a laugh or nothing
"You make me very happy!"
"I know" or "OK" or a laugh or nothing.

He may or may not give me a kiss when asked. Sometimes he will lean in towards me and give me the kiss. If he doesn't, I will lean in toward him, I go in carefully because recently my glasses were accidentally broken when he push me away.

One time he leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips while putting his arm around me. He finished the kiss backing off a little, looked at me me and asked, "More?" and we leaned in for a second kiss. He backed off again and asked "Again?" and we leaned back in for a third kiss. It was magic. Another Momentary Monumental Magical Miracle!

Sometimes when we go through this routine I whisper and he whispers back! So whatever his response, the message gets delivered up to a dozen times depending on the length of our visit or what activities we are pursuing.

So it will be different, but none-the-less important to both Gregory and me and Manny, as we celebrate his July 4th birthday today.

Here are some photographs of the occasion:

Here is a video of the Birthday Song.

Happy Chanukah Party

Today at 1:30, Lieberman 5th floor held its annual Chanukah party and also celebrated the centennial of four of our residents. Everyone convened in the dining room with some tables pushed back, Chanukah decorations a plenty hung on the walls, and beautiful fresh flower center-pieces on the white table clothed tables still in place.

Barry was at the electronic keyboard playing a variety of slow, up tempo, popular, Jewish, and Chanukah pieces. Residents and staff clapped and sang along and even danced. At one point I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find one of the more ambulatory residents requesting me to dance with her.  We "cut the rug" calmly.

Potatoes Pancakes (Latkes) with sour cream and apple sauce and apple juice were served.

The joy in the room was easy to feel and for me it was mingled with sorrow that the clock could not be turned back, that the disease could not be reversed, and that this joy could not be felt by all, all of the time. But if one could stay in the here and now, it was a beautiful, joyful sight to behold. 

YUMMY!

Most of the 40 residents attended the party. Faces are blurred for privacy.

Gregory really enjoyed the electric keyboard.

I really enjoyed the cute performer:-)

Here are the four Centenarians being presented

with a certificate of honor by our Social Worker Hannah.

An Important Lesson Revisited

I have learned this lesson before and forgotten it before. This piece in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Fall 2013 Page 14 reminded me that emotions are the thermometer of how you are feeling. They are a measure of one moment in time. They can help enlighten you and show you what you like about yourself and your life and what you want to try to change. Emotions can also be just a picture of what is or a reminder of what to be grateful for. I used to think that emotions were a sign of weakness or something that had to be "dealt with" or buried or ignored. So now I "go with" my emotions and say, "Bless you," and ask, "What do you want me to know? What do you want me to understand?"

Get Intimate with Your Emotions

By: Robert Augustus Masters

If you want more joy, get as intimate as possible with all of your emotions, illuminating and honoring the basic energy of each one. There is a kind of joy that sooner or later emerges from such exploration, the joy of simply being present at the heart of whatever we are feeling. Such joy weeps as easily as it celebrates; its loss of face only deepens its presence.

Happy Birthday Gregory

On July 4th we had approximately 50 people attend a party in honor of Gregory's Birthday and that of our Nation. 7:00 Appetizers. 8:00 Dinner. 9:00 Fire Works. 10:00 Birthday Cake. All evening the condo carried the hum of people having a good time. By 12:00 we had mostly cleaned up and fell into bed. Happy July 4th!

July 4, 2013

July 4th is just around the corner. We are getting ready to celebrate Gregory's 65th birthday with 40 family and friends. A fun time will be had by all and Gregory should get a great stash of dark chocolate! If you are in the area, give us a call and drop in, we'd love to have you join us.

Update

I have been wanting to sit down and write you a long e-mail for a while so here it is.

Been a very busy time for us. We had approximately 40 people here for Gregory's July 4th birthday celebrations. He took in a nice haul of birthday dark chocolate and bathed in the attention and love that our friends and family brought with them. We brought in Italian Beef & Sausage on French Bread with au juice, mostacholli in a marinara sauce, and cole slaw from a local Italian Restaurant in the area. The chocolate on chocolate birthday cake was from COSTCO, $19.99, to great reviews. Fireworks were viewed from the living room, balcony, or lower level roof top garden. G and I were so exhausted that at the end of the evening, we put the food in the refrigerator and hit the bed only to be greeted by the mess in the morning.

After July 4th I went back to getting ready for Gregory's Art show. See the link at the end of the e-mail so you can see the paintings, the show's hanging, the party etc. Earlier, all of the paintings were photographed, catalogued, measured and described. Previously a "Hold the Date" e-mail was sent. Post cards were ordered, addressed and finally mailed about two weeks before the show. A web site was set up and updated every time a painting was sold. A price list was created for use at the show and it too was updated periodically. The show was hung on Friday July 13th, party refreshments and serving containers were purchased on July 16, the opening was set up on the day of the show. 

Over 60 people attended and the gallery was a-buzz with excitement about the paintings and with love for Gregory. He did well with all that attention and love. He sold close to half of the paintings. After the show we went to dinner with 10 family & close friends. Again exhausted we fell into bed and finished putting things and leftover refreshments away the next morning. As usual we bought too much but better safe...

Gregory has been spending time with his "Companions," one undergraduate and one graduate student, for over a month now and really enjoys being with them. Besides their presence allowing me to get away on my own, run errands, and just have time to myself to "play," the companions have instilled their "young blood" around the place and we both feel good about providing an opportunity for to earn a little money. 

G enjoys being with them, has become more assertive in deciding how his days with them will be spent, decids if they will eat in or out and also when to do nothing or to look through some architecture books or go out to Starbucks. He has been enjoying being a little more independent and it has been as good for him to get away from me as it has vice versa. As the MasterCard ad says, "Priceless!"

Looking forward to a visit from nephew and wife Mark and Colleen this weekend, and then niece Renee and grand niece Lily visit in August. My sister and brother-in-law were here for 10 days earlier in June. It was the first time they got to visit Michael's Museum. Obviously they loved it. I took July off from MM, will be there again on Wednesday afternoons during August as the featured "Maker" for "Maker's Month." We will help visitors make mini-books. They say I should expect to help over 175 kids make a book (I'll have three volunteers helping but I'll have to train and assist them as well.) 

Gregory continues to loose daily abilities but I continue to figure out the game rules and we are doing well. Thanks for the Companions because I can no longer leave him home unsupervised. I do pretty much everything for both of us and our life together. Don't mind but it takes a lot of energy and advance guessing of his needs. His quality of life continues to be high and he is happy and content. We are fortunate in our life. We are fortunate to have family and friends like you. We appreciate you!

Click here for link to: GREGORY MAIRE: Studies in Color & Form

Congratulations

Congratulations, just posted my 300th post on this BLOG. Amazing what one can find to talk about.