Saving Grace

By Bheerema

Capacity For Delight is a government research memory care facility which houses Grace and her fellow elderly dementia patients. They are cared for by Automated Helpers as a consequence of refusing dementia preventive medications when they were younger. Grace might not be as confused as they think, but if the caregivers are not human, then who really cares?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bheerema
• Release date: Aug 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005490089

Book preview

Saving Grace

By Becky Heerema

Copyright 2021 Becky Heerema

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Prologue

Grace looked at herself in the mirror. What she saw was plain. She was not a make- up gal unless she was going out. Then it was eyebrow pencil and a dab of lipstick. She reviewed the list in her journal. Company was coming and she didn’t want to risk forgetting anything.

-Don’t laugh at me

-no toilet

-don’t follow me

-lock me in

-bars on walls

-send me away

The list was complete, but she would need to remember to check things off once they were handled. Nothing could be left out.

Her eyes continued the review of her reflection. She saw healthy skin, tan from taking frequent walks and wrinkled from living 70 years. Her wrinkles were in places that resulted from smiling and laughing. Grace laughed a lot. She had a quick wit and self-deprecating humor. She loved when others laughed with her. Her easy, warm smile led to making new acquaintances wherever she went.

Her memory wandered backwards. Far back to the very early days of dating Jim. He never liked lipstick because he didn’t like getting it on his mouth when he stole a smooch. He insisted Gracie was lovely without any enhancement, and he was the only one who called her ‘Gracie’ other than her parents. She remembered pining for him when he went away for military training. Filling her journal every evening with her constant thoughts of him. The drawing she made of him when he returned home in uniform.

The best decision she ever made was to accept his proposal of marriage. Being his wife was her favorite role. Their life together had been a grand adventure. Jim’s career took them all over the world. They had lived in six foreign countries. His top secret jobs did not allow him to talk about what he did. That was OK with Grace. She was happy to do her own thing. She raised their daughter Iszi and she worked as a music and art instructor on the various military bases they called home. Grace tried the mental exercise of remembering the names of all the military bases they had served. She was not surprised that many of the names escaped her. But she knew that if she needed to remember, her journals would contain all the answers.

Names of everything escaped her these days. People, places, things. Nouns were eluding her and she knew what that meant. She was also losing things pretty often now. Key cards, important files, Iszi’s contact information. Sometimes it took a couple tries and mistakes before she could successfully navigate to the store and back. Then last week she was actually stopped by a police officer for ignoring a traffic signal. That was what prompted Grace to finally make the appointment she had feared and dreaded for years.

The physician asked a million questions. She had heard the same battery of questions asked of her own mother. Grace couldn’t remember exactly how long ago that was. He asked Grace to count backwards; to draw an old fashioned clock; to remember a few words in order. He asked what Grace would do if the house was on fire, but when she said she would call her daughter, she couldn’t spit out Iszi’s name. Then the doctor said the house is on fire and Iszi is not available, what will you do? He was loud and stern and urgent. Grace couldn’t come up with the answer this man wanted. He asked so many questions that she couldn’t answer. She became frustrated almost to the point of tears.

So Grace was not surprised when the doctor declared that she was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. And she knew exactly what was in store. The slow progression into dementia was predictable and terrifying. Grace wanted to remain independent. Jim had passed last year sometime; the actual date was in her journal. She loved her house. She loved taking walks to watch the animals and enjoy the flowers. So far she had found her way home every time, although it got confusing if she was still out when it started to get dark. Grace wanted time to enjoy Iszi’s son, Baby Jimmy, named after Jim. She was so thankful that Iszi was in a happy marriage to Don and their little family had a happy life. And now Grace had asked them to come to dinner so she could have the same talk her own mother had hosted with Grace.

We have Alzheimer’s Disease.

We are either going to laugh through it or cry through it, and I want us to laugh. But please laugh with me, not at me.

These are the things that I don’t want you to do in my care.

Grace looked at the list she had written. Her penmanship was shaky. She didn’t want Iszi or any family or friends to toilet her, bathe her, or lose sleep chasing her around. They had her permission to make changes to the house if it would allow her to remain safely in her own home. She hoped she would not need to live with Iszi because she knew what a huge imposition that was. Grace had hosted her own mother through some stages of Alzheimer’s. Grace’s heart was willing, but it eventually became a grueling misery. Grace had signed the list and made it a legal document by notarization.

She took one last look at herself in the mirror. She tried to wrap her mind around the idea that there would come a time when she would not recognize herself in the mirror. She hoped it wouldn’t happen for a long time. She hoped she would not be aware when it did happen. She planned to chronicle every thought in her journal until she forgot that too. She fluffed her hair with her fingers and headed to the kitchen to make sure everything on the menu was ready. The kids would be here soon.

Chapter 1

Good morning Grace. Can you hear my voice? It’s time to rise and shine.

Grace could hear the voice, but remained still in her bed, eyes closed, trying to decipher if this was actually her daughter speaking, or a computer-generated facsimile telling her, Today is Saturday. You are a resident of Capacity for Delight.

That answered that. It was not Iszi after all.

Grace’s understanding of the situation was muddled. Glimpses of Iszi coming here with her darted in and out of her memory. Iszi was smiling but also looked anxious. Many hugs…Iszi promising, See you soon!…Iszi leaving, but Grace remaining in this room…, nothing really settling into a clear picture behind her