Alzheimer's a Bitch

Gramps - Mom - Alysse - Me

Last weekend I went home to visit my family, specifically my grandfather who has Alzheimer's.

My mom had called to tell me that he was getting much worse. The kind funny man that I grew up knowing was now angry, physical, and argumentative. So I told her I would make the trip and come see him. I called my brother's and we planned to get together Saturday, go visit him and see what we could do to help.

Well when we we arrived he was just setting there sleeping. My mother woke him up, since it was also almost lunch time. He just stared at us for 15 minutes while we tried to talk with him. We talked with other patients in the memory care unit. We watched one attempted escape, and laughed when she turned herself in immediately.

The only reaction we got from gramps was when mom asked him if he wanted help to go to lunch. He shook his head yes, and then shuffled off with mom to his spot in the dining room. So the body is still there, but the mind is gone.

What do you do to reconcile your memories of the man that was versus the shell that still exists. This decorated war veteran, who I once heard tell a TSA agent when the metal detector kept going off, "that's shrapnel from when the ____  got me in Korea." This is the guy who sang, "I Love to go swimming with bow legged women". Which always got hum called Donald Clarence by my grandmother. This is the guy that took you on your first duck hunt at 4 years old? The guy who stopped taking me to the bar when I was  four because I kept sliding off the stool? Or got you hooked on big american Lincoln's and Mercury's? Was a UAW member through and through?

My favorite story of all time was that he had Carotic artery surgery to remove a blockage. He was waking up in the recovery room, and was being attended to by a sweet young red headed nurse, and grampa was hitting on her and asking for a sponge bath. He kept it up until she was replaced by a large male nurse.

I don't know, but I'm glad my daughter and my nephew's got to meet him and know him prior to this terrible disease taking his mind. Because he is just a shell now. A loved shell, but a shell. I have resolved myself to this fact. Hopefully someday this disease will no longer exist. But for now it does and its a bitch!

Labor Day

What is Labor Day? Why do we celebrate it?

Honestly I had to go look it up.

Who would of thought that it is a holiday to celebrate the contributions of the American worker. Brought about by the organized labor movement at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th Century.

Having been in a union and having many members of my family in the United Auto Workers, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Carpenters and Operators Union, Teamsters, AFL/CIO, I understand the struggle that made this holiday possible.

So thanks for all of those who came before us and made it possible.

Unions gave many folks a much better life. Brought about workplace safety regulations, better pay, shorter work hours, and that list goes on.

But I wonder if the American worker is actually losing ground now. I don't remember the last time that there was a strike that caught my attention. Is it because big business is kinder and gentler and giving up on negotiations more easily? I don't think that is the case, I think that unions have slowly had their bargaining positions eroded over the past 30 years.

If you look at the beginning of this downturn, it was with the Air Traffic Controllers. They went on strike, and the negotiations that they received were, "Go back to work or lose your jobs". They stayed on strike and were all fired. They lost effectiveness and that is why there are only approximately 11% of all workers in Unions.

I don't have a solution, or know if a solution is needed, but I think one is.

If something is not done, wages and benefits will stagnate and decline. All the while, factory's are moved to countries with absolutely no labor laws and folks work for pennies a day.

You cannot legislate morals and proper behavior so at some point there will be another "labor movement" and the American working man will regain some of his glory that is celebrated on Labor Day.

So think about that while your drinking beer and barbecuing on Monday.

God Bless America!!!