It’s been a crazy week! Mitzi and I have been volunteering at my church’s Vacation Bible School. I photograph the kids doing all of their activities and she is my official “Toter.” She carries my small camera backpack around. There is a lot of chaos and it’s loud, hot (outside), and confusing to her at times. But she is a trooper. And she absolutely loves the kids!
The differences between her helping me last year versus this year are pretty stark. This has been a good way to do a year over year comparison. She doesn’t let me out of her sight now, but it happens occasionally and she looks totally lost. I wear one of my plaid shirts on the outside of my volunteer shirt because it’s familiar to her and so that I stand out from all of the other green shirts. We go at a much slower pace than we did last year, and she is absolutely wiped out by the end of the 3 hour madness.
The fairly slow progression of Alzheimer’s, and the constant need to adapt on a day-to-day basis makes it difficult to see how much the disease can take its toll when you’re with the person 5 days a week. I hate that. But, like Mitzi says, “I’m not a quitter,” so as long as she keeps telling me she’s up for fun and shenanigans, I’ll keep coming up with them! ❤️
