In college, I took an accelerated
class on Office programs, and it was no surprise that our tests were
computerized. As many of us know, there may be more than one way to come up
with the correct answer, but we had three tries to come up with the “preferred”
computer chosen method. “The test is only going to have one correct answer, so
if the way you do it the first time doesn’t work, try something different!”
This could well be a life’s lesson.
During the time I was a caregiver for Jim, I lived and breathed the lesson of
trying something different. It became my mode of survival. It seemed that each
day brought about some of the same challenges and piled on new ones. You would
think it would be easier as you learned what worked with the old ones, but the
solution bar kept changing for the old ones along with the new ones.
I documented these challenges and
began to put them into a memoir Indelible.
I had a rough draft finished a decade
ago, but put it aside.
I resumed the project in September
2016 with hopes to have it finished by the end of 2017. Instead, here it is a
year later, and I still have work to do. In the book, I share some brief
glimpses into everyday challenges of having a husband with dementia. These
flashes of reality could be thought of as verses. These stories, some short,
some longer, make up chapters. Eventually, when the words come together in a
coherent manner, it will become a non-fiction book.
.
The book has taken a back burner to
all the other distractions life has thrown at me. Many mornings I wake up with
intentions to work on the book, but first, I have to tend to all those other
obligations, all the immediate things that must be tended to, and the dread of
what’s coming down the pike.
As we close in on the new year, most
of us take a moment to reflect on the year just about to trot into the sunset
of the past. As we close the chapter of 2018, I’m more than ready to open a new
one in 2019.
Too often, I’ve made the mistake of
trying to be a people pleaser, and that means some of them have stolen my
pleasure. Worse yet, they’ve stolen my time.
I plan to move into the new year
without resolutions, but with the resolution that the same old problems aren’t
going to be approached in the same old way. Sure, I’ll still make mistakes and
take the wrong approach, but maybe by the third try, I’ll get it right. Who
knows, maybe 2019 will be an Indelible
year.
Copyright © Dec 2018 by L.S. Fisher
#ENDALZ
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