How yesterday went….

I’m all ooged out because there is a storm happening and it’s only 6:20am. Yesterday was a weird day. It was Memaw’s 84th birthday, and Mikey and I took her to get her hair permed. It didn’t go too well.

Her perm turned out fine, in the long run, but there was trouble at the salon. Before the lady started working on Memaw’s hair, Mikey told her that Memaw was on Aricept, because he was afraid that a chemical reaction might happen with the perm solution. The worker asked out loud to another worker about a possible reaction with Aricept. That made me mad, because what if Memaw didn’t want it known that she was taking that medicine? I thought about a letter I read in Dear Abby about informing the staff at public places that you were bringing in an Alzheimer’s patient, but I didn’t say anything, because it seemed like it was too late.

Maybe the scene that followed could have been prevented somehow had I said something. I was witness to something straight out of protective-grandson-hell.

When the worker lady took Memaw back to wet her hair after the solution was ready to come off, Memaw couldn’t seem to lean back right into the sink. The worker didn’t even try to help her at all, but she rinsed Memaw’s hair anyway, which soaked Memaw’s back. I was not aware of that at that time, but I was aware that the worker handed Memaw a towel after it. Mikey said that Memaw was supposed to hold it to her face, but she wasn’t. Her eyes were shut tight, and the towel was in her shaking hands a few inches in front of her face. She looked hurt, to me, but I didn’t know, so I didn’t do anything. Again, I should have done something, like go up to my sweet little grandmother and help her hold the towel up to her face so no solution ran into her eyes. As it was, some DID get in her eyes.

Since the worker had soaked Memaw’s back, she told Mikey to take Memaw into the back room and change her out of her wet shirt. So Mikey did. After that, the worker tried to trim up Memaw’s hair once it was out of the curlers. At some point, Memaw got very upset. Apparently, while I was outside smoking, Memaw had told the lady not to cut her hair off, because it was already short. Mikey must not have heard her say it, or he would probably have done something. Anyway, the worker cut Memaw’s hair and Memaw grew very angry.

At one point, my Aunt Glenda came in, having found us because Aunt Martha told her where we were. Glenda saw her mother angry, talked to Memaw and then me a bit, and then beat a path out the door. I can’t say I blame her. She doesn’t particularly deal well with Memaw’s temper, because she can’t understand it. Everyone in the family, including Glenda, knows that Glenda is not the best person to deal with Memaw. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Glenda is a really good woman. She just functions completely different from her mother – from my mother, her baby sister, too.

The worker was trimming up the side of Memaw’s hair, and Memaw jerked away from her, making such an angry expression that I almost screamed. I told the worker and Mikey that that was enough. Let’s go.

In the car, on the way back to Martha’s Office, Memaw had calmed down enough to make a wisecrack that left me laughing quite a bit. She said, “My birthday didn’t go like I thought it would, but at least I got a free bath!”

That’s My Memaw!

Louis and Jack