Paris Revisited

Watching the YouTube video above brings back memories of one of the greatest adventures of Gregory and my life but also a deep sadness. In re-living these adventures, and being able to feel Gregory walking besides me, I feel like travel and discovery by myself will never be as joyous again. At least not for now.

In 2005, Gregory and I spent ten days in Paris. At that point Gregory was three or four years into the diagnosis of Dementia/Alzheimer's but he was doing pretty well.

We joined, last minute, on a trip that friends Chuck and John had been planning. We got so excited hearing about their plans and at the potential of spending time with them in Paris, not to mention being in Paris at all, that within three days I was able to arrange all the details: free miles first class on Lufthansa Airlines and an apartment on Isle du le Cité overlooking Notre Dame Cathedral (located just around the corner from Chuck and John's apartment. It was a trip that was meant to be.

During part of the trip we did things together with Chuck and John and at other times, we went on our own adventures.

Click here to see our photos of Montmartre.

Another of the many highlights of our trip to Paris, and probably the most significant was a visit to Vaux-leVicomte which had been a life long ambition of Gregory's.

Click here to see our photos of Vaux-le-Vicomte

Insight or Intuition? Real or Imagined? PART III

Yesterday I visited Gregory after dinner. I asked him if he would like to see photographs from our visit to Paris and he replied, "Oh Yes!" I was amazed at how energetic his answer was and wondered if he really knew what I was asking.

When Gregory gets really excited about something he borders on being emotional and crying for joy, he was there at my suggestion to re-visit Paris.

I set up my iPhone to show the photographs on his large flat screen, 42" TV. While I have many, many photos of our time in Paris, I showed the album called "Reprise" which contained the best of the photos of all the places we visited while in Paris for 11 days.

In many ways this was a significant breakthrough in my interactions with Gregory as he really was engaged with the photos, and as I named the places and retold some of the stories he really responded appropriately.

Ironically he put on his "I am a French Man" role playing but now and then corrected my pronunciation of the names of the places we were discussing.

Periodically he lost focus on the TV but I was able to bring him back. One time he got a little perplexed with me and said, "I am looking at the TV!" Sure enough when I leaned over I could see he  did have his eyes in the right place!

Throughout our looking at the 50+ photos he commented, agreed with my naming, responded to the stories. Periodically I would ask, "Are you enjoying this?" and he would reply, "OH YES!"

So lessons learned are that while Gregory's world is very narrow, and while he is comfortable with that world, it is not a bad idea to periodically revisit fun times we had in the past as long as their loss is not too traumatic. For example Paris was good, Mexico will probably be good, but I am not sure about looking at his past architecture projects and certainly would never show him photos of the condo!

I was so pleased with the evening Gregory and I spent together. I cannot describe the joy I felt at being able to give him this experience. I keep talking about "Little Miracles" and this was another one!

P.S. I enjoyed seeing the photographs as well!

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

 The Seine with Notre Dame in background.

  The Seine with Notre Dame in background.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Louvre 

The Metro

Carousel near the Metro stop by our apartment.

Pompidou Museum

Eiffel Tower

 

Eiffel Tower

 M. Goldberg's Deli in the Marai

Scene of an anti-Semitic bombing 20 years earlier.

Place des Vosges, a wonderful complex of old

apartments surrounding a the park on four sides.

 Like most buildings in Paris, multi socio economic groups living together. Shop on first floor make second floor with short ceilings perfect for shop keepers apartments. Third floor with huge floor to ceiling windows for the wealthy. Fourth floor with smaller windows for middle class families. And finally fifth floor "Grotto" for students and the poor with single bedrooms and a shared bath.

La Madeleine Church outside

 La Madeleine Church inside

Laduree, a famous pastry shop.

Scare-Coeur Church on Montmartre

Scare-Coeur Church on Montmartre

Street singer on Montmartre

Us having lunch on Montmartre

Veaux de Viconte outside Paris. One of Gregory's lifetime dreams finally realized.

Famous sidewalk cafe: Les Deux Magots

Opera Garnier

Insight or Intuition? Real or Imagined? PART II

One thing I did previously was to create what I call Gregory's Memory Book in which 8x10 portrait type photographs of the people in his life are placed.

We have looked through the book only a few times with me naming each person. Sometimes I explain their relationship. Maybe with more practice he will be able to get through the entire book without loosing his focus or maybe I'll divide it into family, friends, neighbors, pets, etc.

I never mention that some of them might have passed on; like his or my mom and dad. I made the mistake of explaining to him, as we reached a pet's photograph, that the pet was dead. He got very sad and cried as if it the pet had just died and this was the first time he had gotten the news. I leaned my lesson.

We haven't looked at the Memory Book for a while and yesterday's experience (To see yesterday's post CLICK HERE. Opens in a new window.) tells me that I need to take the book out more often and go through it with Gregory.

Gregory now has a 42" flat screen TV on his dresser and I am able to hook it up to my iPhone. We use this to "FaceTime" with family and being such a large screen, Gregory is able to focus on the person with whom we are talking. It was almost impossible to do so when we used just the iPhone.

I will attempt to use the photos on my iPhone, sent to the large screen, to visit some of Gregory and my previous vacations. Since photographs of vacations are something that are always in the past it may not be too difficult for Gregory to revisit. I do not know if he will lament his inability to travel now or return to some of these sites but we will see. I don't think so.

Depending on how these go I might try revisiting some of his architecture projects photographs or other activities in which he can no longer participate like painting with Nancy Rosen or family parties.

Again, I will keep you up to date on how this progresses.