Pour It On! AGAIN!

The pouring of ice water in the Ice Water Challenge may seem a little stupid, but it went viral. It accomplished the goal of raising the awareness of ALS. Its one thing to get in on the fun and challenge, but if you didn’t follow through with a donation, then it is a wonderful cause stiffed by pop-culture. It would be nice if we perhaps had another challenge for Alzheimer's. It too is a nasty incurable disease.

ALS and Alzheimer’s are a wicked ways to end one a life. I guess the saving grace is that in Alzheimers, the victim doesn’t know what’s going on. I often wonder what is going on in their mind when they don’t recognize family and friends and just sit and stare. It is the family and friends who see this degenerate state. They mourn the loss.

My father-in- law died in a nursing home of the disease. I know Healthcare center is a more politically correct term used by relatives feel better, and relieve their own guilt. Whatever you call it, it is a warehouse for the old and infirmed and very much needed. The experience is often harder on the family than the patient, particularly, an Alzheimer’s patient.

On one visit I made both my sons go to experience what tragedy this disease can do to a human being, their grandpa. Bud didn’t recognize us and peed his pants, and what he did say didn’t made much sense. How degrading. Before he had to be committed to the nursing home, the signs emerged daily, each day going faster down hill. Later my mother-in-law admitted she waited too long to make that awful necessary decision to send him where he would get the care he needed. I know that feeling. I saw it in my dad when we had to re-admit my mom to a nursing home. My mom did not have Alzheimer’s yet, but she had a lot of dementia.

With Alzheimer’s, sometimes it is the funny things they do that makes us laugh and get through this sad event of the human experience. One time Bud was about to walk out the door, he had on his shirt, tie, hat, shoes and socks. Unfortunately, he forgot to put on his pants. Luckily my mother-in-law caught him before he got out.

When my father died, our mom sat across the visitation room pretty far away from where my father rested. She was greeted by family and friends through out the visitation. When we got home, she plopped herself in her chair and said, "What a good time I had", virtually oblivious to why she was there. At the nursing home she would always say that my dad was having an affair with a rather large black caregiver. She also wrote us boys a note that my father found. When my brother and I were in Marion, he pulled the note from his ratty old bathrobe and asked how we would feel if we got this note. The note,” Dear boys.Your father and I are getting divorced and I am moving to Arkansas. I’ll be in touch.” My brother and I laughed, but he certainly didn’t find any humor in it.

Sadly, Bud and my mother’s Alzheimer’s stories are not the end of tragedy of Alzheimer’s in our family. My brother-in-law, Larry, has Alzheimer's. He was committed to a facility about four years ago. He is now totally bedridden and virtually comatose. I didn’t live around him, so I only saw him every year or so. The time I remember most was when I noticed there might be something wrong. It didn’t register with me time, it is only in retrospect that I remember this because of course we didn’t know what was coming. We were playing golf. We had all teed off and waited for him. He was just standing there staring. Finally he slowly walk to his bag a pulled out his club. We didn’t really notice because Larry always moved a little slow, but there was something about this time that caused me to store it in my memory bank.

During all this time his wife visits he him virtually every day. How hard is that on her? We cannot judge unless we have been there.

Larry weighed 300 lbs, give or take, much of his life. His current weight is 114 lbs. We all wonder why God has not taken him. Perhaps it is not right to pray for someone’s death, but in this case we wonder what God is waiting for.

So pour a bucket of cold water on yourself and contribute to this dreadful life sucking disease,

Peace be you, Larry.

Sam

9/11

September 11, 2001 is a day that will live in infamy. It was a day that will never be forgotten. America was attacked on its own soil. What was that day like for me?

I looked out from my covers to be greeted by a sunny fall day. I usually doze for a while and turn on the radio. Sometimes I turned on the cable news channels to get a start on today’s news stories.

At about 7:50 Central Daylight time I turned on the TV.  The first image was of dark gray smoke rising out of one of the Twin Towers at the foot of Manhattan.   It was the beginning of a new day in history. The TV reporter did not know what happened yet. They were reporting that they thought a small plane had crashed into the towers. Details were still sketchy. As I lay in bed watching the story develop, there was a huge explosion with a ball of flames shooting out of the side of the building.  Because of the camera angle, my first thought was that there was a second explosion in the same tower.  It was then reported that a second plane crashed into the second tower. Unbelievable! The pace of bad news accelerated.

A few minutes later there was a report of a plane had crashed into the Pentagon in Washington. It was still unbelievable. A little later it was reported that a plane had crashed in Central Pennsylvania. Unbelievable! The chain of events was surreal. What was happening in my country?  The smoke on the towers continued to grow. Black smoke against the bluest of God’s sky. Panic began to ensue in the buildings. Some people from above the floors where the flames raged jumped to their death. Office papers floated down like huge snow flakes. The street scenes were incredible. Finally the building themselves fell to earth. This was not a movie, it was real. It was a terrorist attack. The world is full of evil.

The rest of the day and much of the following days was spent watching history unfold.

Planes were ordered out of the skies. I later saw a screen at the FAA that showed hundreds of lights representing the position of all the planes in the air.  One by one the lights disappeared from the board as the planes found their emergency landing airport.  The screen finally showed no lights. America was dark.



Just Remember Forever!

Sam

So Blessed!

I have often said that I am the most blessed man on earth. Today I believe that even more.

Yesterday, I was invited by my Rock Church friend to join her to help prepare and feed the homeless near Petco Park in downtown San Diego.

I had be looking for a volunteer project and had not found one in which suited me.  I had thought about volunteering for a homeless project, but had put it off, not sure how to go about it. When my friend asked me if I wanted to go with her to serve, I said sure. This would be a test for me to see if I felt comfortable. 

The charity is a non-profit named Just Call Us Volunteers. It was started by Chef Julia Darling in 2005. It started as Christmas homeless feeding, but expanded to Thanksgiving and now year around. The organization receives support of Chefs and hospitality industry throughout San Diego County. For me this was a big plus. I was in the foodservice industry for almost 60 years. I love this industry and the people in it. It is supported by donations of food and supplies from various purveyers and cash from people.

We drove to a strip mall where the charity had a full preparation kitchen. The first task was to prepare the food. Although I spent years in the industry, I cannot cook. I was assigned to shuck corn and the strip the kernels from from the cob for a delicious Mexican corn dish. Next I removed seeds from cucumbers. All fit my skills perfectly.

When everything was ready we loaded our cars and drove toward downtown. Of course we got lost, but finally found the place. Even getting lost was fun. Especially, since I was not driving. The area has several shelters in this neighborhood, and a very large population of the destitute. There are so many homeless. It is so sad.

We set up the table, mixed the salad and laid out the chili (vegetarian and beef), cornbread and cookies. The people approached us five at a time. It is a very disciplined and everyone followed the directions. And they all said thank you..

Now I was face to face with the homeless. Some of whom were still drunk or extremely hungover. There were druggies, PTSD veterans, and who knows what else? Most were not very clean. Teeth were missing. There were a couple of younger people dressed nicely and must surely be newcomers. You would like to think they had a chance to move forward in a positive way.

As a writer I often use the saying, "Every Life is a story, some are long, some are shorter, but still a story of mankind and history." I couldn't help but think that each of these poor broken people had a story. It would seem that their stories were a trip to the bottom. They had lives before becoming homeless. What were those lives? They all were beautiful babies, and now they are ugly dirty people, destroyed by drugs, alcohol, the wars of their times and poverty and joblessness. I would so love to write their stories, but that would seem to be intruding and perhaps judgmental.

We served 75 people a nutritious meal. We packed up and drove back to the kitchen, passing a few homeless napping on the sidewalk. It was a learning experience for me and requires a lot of thought about those who live amongst us on the streets with all their belongings in a shopping cart or on the back of a wheelchair. It is difficult to absorb. How did they fall so far, stripped of their pride and humanhood? So very sad.

I was glad I did this, and I will do it again. It is God's work and he has blessed me. 

Sam