Entries by Virginia Kravitz

A Baked Potato Conversation

(Time Period: The first few weeks after Mom moved into memory care.) Conversation # 1: It Made Sense To Me Six weeks after my father died, we moved my mother to a smaller assisted living community so that she could receive more personalized care. We were relieved to have found what appeared to be the […]

Themes That Move You

The Best Prayers Are One-Liners In my prior post, Open To What Is Next, I relayed the time my father spoke words to me that also seemed to be his prayer: I’m in your hands. I stated that some of the best prayers are one-liners and when expressed are often spontaneous and raw.

Open To What Is Next

Dad’s Words to Me In the last year of my father’s life, it was necessary for him to have minor surgeries every few months. He rolled with these and recovered each time, able to enjoy the year with my mother in their new community where she was beginning to receive assisted living support. At this […]

What Do They Remember?

(Time Period: About two years after Mom moved into memory care.) Avoiding the Word When Mom first showed signs of a failing memory, I found myself using a certain word and asking the same thing repeatedly. That single-worded question was this: “Remember?” That’s your niece, Gloria, your sister Rose’s daughter. Remember? That’s when you and […]

A Little Defiance Is Good

(Time Period: About a year after Mom moved into the smaller assisted living home with memory care.) “These Are Strange” “I ordered Grace the Alzheimer’s pajamas.” “Okay,” I responded, “What are Alzheimer’s pajamas?”

Does She Know You?

The Question Everyone Asked “Does she know you?” That’s the question everyone asked and I understand why. There is much anguish in anticipating that someone you love deeply and know intimately might not respond with that familiar smile.

Grading Visits

Good or Bad “She smiled and acknowledged us. It was a good visit.” My friend Ira described a 15-minute interaction with his mother who was confined in a memory care facility during the height of the pandemic. With plexiglass restrictions and no-touch rules, it was especially heartbreaking. That Sunday, receiving a smile from his mother […]

Still Teaching, Even Now

(Time Period: In the last few months of my mother’s life while she received hospice care.) The Gentle Reminder In the final months of my mother’s life, I sat by her bedside while she rested, played soft music and even watched a bit of the Food Network with her when she was up for it. […]

How Are We Going To Do This?

(Time Period: Two days after moving my parents to Arizona, in a relative early phase of Mom’s progression with Alzheimer’s.) Bedtime It was 10:00 p.m. Dad was downstairs watching TV and Jess and I had just gotten into bed. Light from the guest bathroom down the hall was streaming through the small window above our […]