As we rolled back to the car after the concert this afternoon, Mary Ann asked why the trio I was singing in had not been asked to come up to the front to sing.  We did sing, but somehow it did not register in her mind.  Caregiver Debbie said that she had pointed out when I went up front to sing and that Mary Ann had responded that she saw me. The Parkinson’s Disease Dementia is such an odd sort of disease.  Perception is sort of like Swiss Cheese, there are random holes with no explanation as to why they are where they are.

The concert seemed to go well.  It was tough logistically to pull off since there was a huge choir made up of folks from five congregations.  There were numbers of instrumentalists playing at different times depending on the style of music.  There was classical music and contemporary music, liturgical dance, poetry, drama; there were soloists, ensembles, a hand bell choir, pieces with organ accompaniment and piano accompaniment and combinations of any or all of the above.  It would have been tough to sit through that concert without finding something to like. It struck me what a complex organism the event was with each of us having our little piece that when put together with all the others could provide something of such magnitude.  There were no stars, no one to single out, other than Young, the project director who had the vision and put it all together.

I enjoyed being in the setting, talking and thinking and listening to and making music.  One of the choir directors from another congregation sang in the trio.  He and I had a chance to talk music off and on.  It is a world in which I have spent much quality time in earlier decades.  I find it engrossing and energizing, as well as spiritually uplifting.

Yesterday I had a chance to talk with our eleven year old Granddaughter whose choir concert was also this afternoon, resulting in my missing it.  She seemed okay with my missing her concert.  She told me about some of the songs they would be singing.  Our Son said he would try to get some of the concert on video for us.  I feel better having made that connection.

Mary Ann and I both slept well last night.  I had plenty of time to get her ready this morning, dressed, fed two meals, hair washed.  There was lots of fainting again, raising some concern about how things would go if she tried attending the concert.  When Home Instead Caregiver Debbie came, we just headed over to church.  Mary Ann seemed to do fine.  The concert was almost two hours long, plus a reception afterward. Lots of people made a point of greeting Mary Ann.  Now that there is an awareness that she is enrolled in a Hospice Program, folks are probably less sure what to expect and more surprised to see her appearing to be doing reasonably well.

Last evening and this evening, after Mary Ann went to bed, I was able to spend almost an hour on the deck, enjoying the sound of the waterfall, watching clouds and birds, as dusk arrived and the lights in the waterfall shone at the base of each level, sparkling in the sheets of water coming over the rocks. As a result it is now getting late.  I will hope for another good night’s sleep tonight, but, of course, whether or not that happens is not mine to decide.

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