The sun is shining

Hello! Today I am inspired and happy.

The sun is shining again in Los Angeles.

The temperature is about 62 degrees.

The sky is blue, like it is most of the year.

I would like to tell you some good stories. You know about 80% of everything I explained is kind of sad and cloudy, like the gray clouds. But there are some things that have changed Rick for the better.

Rick never liked being social. Since the Alzheimer’s and Dr. Amos’ advice to spend a lot of time with friends, neighbors and family and socialize as much as possible, he has been social. He comes everywhere with me! He’s like one of the girls now (me, and my sisters and my girlfriends).  Normally my sister’s husbands are not included when we get together, but Rick is always with me. Picture Rick and I walking the streets, and he says “hi” to the elderly lady at the bus stop. I look at him and wonder is this really Rick? In the past, he would never be friendly or talk to strangers, but now he stops to chat.

Rick would never say hi to anyone, he was a loner. Now he says “hi” to the cashier at the pharmacy, he shakes hands with the homeless or anyone who talks to him. Sometimes I get embarrassed if he talks to strangers, as if he knows them, everybody lately. Picture it, he’s like a politician, shaking hands with everyone and making small talk. If someone asks him: How are you? He can put on a show of acting like he doesn’t have a disease. He can start talking sort of nonsense and changing his face and contorting his body. He says “you know this is how it is.” He seems like an actor to me.

He was a performer but that was his alter ego that he would use on stage, Freddy Moore. So I guess he’s just turning into Freddy instead of staying Rick in public. We used to say that on stage, as Freddy Moore, he was Superman and in his private life he was Clark Kent, aka Rick. He is a completely different person from the Rick I have known for 35 years. It is really funny. I ask his caregiver how things are going each day. She tells me something like: “Today he dance in the middle of the supermarket or today he was just speaking with a group of people on the street or even he see someone that he knows and says I know you.” I am glad he is trying to be sociable and enjoying himself. He talks to everyone nowadays and makes me happy. Its a different way of life. I love him and sociability is good for Alzheimer’s disease.