No, no more sadness today! Even I can’t take it! It is time for a laugh and some belated Christmas cheer. Today, the third loved one in my life (my father in law) was safely deposited into a high care bed in an aged care facility, a very difficult transition for him as he had only been living in the low care facility for a year, and now has to make new friends again. He and we were not happy, and I continue to struggle with the notion that these human cattle yards for aged and dementia care are a good thing??? I also attended the funeral of an old nursing friend who died after a very short six-week battle with cancer. There was lots of sadness, and hundreds of wonderful memories, but mostly the feeling was that she had not suffered for long, she had died at home with her family, and also had enough time to say goodbye. I wish her well in her next journey. Tonight, after attending the movie Tin Tin, my Christmas gift to my husband, I have received something that has finally made my day, a beautiful card from an even more beautiful friend (thank you KB xxx), a card with a cat on it doing the ironing, and the words in large letters LOVE LIFE – HATE IRONING! Wow, my ironing blog still has legs, which to me is weirdly exciting. So after many weeks of varying degrees of sadness and grief my blog tonight is about love and friendship and loyalty. It is about caring and generosity of spirit. It is about you, and about me. Living with an open heart has sometimes been detrimental to my happiness as it has meant occasionally I get very hurt. My fault, not theirs as being hurt is merely MY reaction to something. But living with an open heart has meant it is also overflowing with the goodness, love and warmth of my friends, the love of my husband and children. It has allowed me to receive love and loyalty in abundance, and opened up my mind to change. Loving and laughing, in the face of dementia is for me the only way. There are lots of very funny things, if you choose to see them that way. Once again, it is MY choice. I can re-read the same book a thousand times, and still have to wait for the ending. My kids can re-gift each year with the same CD! Loyalty to my friends is more secure, as keeping secrets is now my specialty. Meeting new friends happens almost every day. I can play cards on my own, against myself. And I always win! Eating out is more fun as it often seems like we are going to a new and exciting restaurant. Learning to cook is like a dream come true as I have always been passionate about food. I know, I was a chef, but hey, at least I’ve still got some of the skill sets, so at least I’m half way there. And as for this ride on the dementia train, it is probably the scariest, saddest, fastest, coolest, funniest, most amazing ride of my life… toot toot 🙂