The chocolate is wearing off . . .

Good morning.

Things with Henry are about the same. It is a steady decline in his abilities to do anything. He broke down crying last week because, in a momentary period of cognizance, he realized he can no longer do the little things (like get dressed or shave) himself. It was quite sad. Christena still doesn't know how to handle him and she spends a great deal of time losing her patience with him. It is infuriating but there isn't much we can do until a space becomes available for him in a care facility and we aren't the primary caregivers for him.

Right now the biggest challenge is getting her to understand that we agreed, when he came home, that she needed to be with him *ALL* of the time, unless she had arranged for respite care to come in. Our lives are *so* busy that we can't be counted on to drop everything and go sit with him while he looks at the television. She still decides, on a whim, that she needs to go to the drugstore and will just come up and announce that she is going out. She does not get that he can't be left at home alone, at all. It isn't safe for him or for everyone else. We struggle with that and she gets angry with me when I tell her she can't just go out. I think I have posted this frustration before though and so will leave it.

Last week I had a client killed in a car accident. It was HORRIFIC! She was due on April 26 and her husband was driving. He spent the week and Sunnybrook and is slowly recovering. She and the baby went to Trillium, to deliver the baby to try to save it before she died but had no luck. Both mom and baby died as a result. I asked Doug to come with me to the wake on the weekend and it was a Catholic wake. The casket was open with mom and baby laying together, holding the rosary. I don't think Doug will ever be the same. It REALLY upset him. He wasn't upset that they would do that, rather it bothered him to see the mother and baby together.

With all the has gone on here in the recent past Doug and I have decided to get away for a night. My parents have agreed to take the boys to their place the weekend of the 21st so that Doug and I can go away. We can't even do that here because Christena thinks nothing of coming upstairs to vent if she is feeling frustrated. I was out for coffee last night with a past client/now friend and was telling her we were going to Niagara Falls for the night. I explained that we had never really been before (other than to do a 5 minute viewing of the water) and when I got up this morning I found an email from her explaining that she used some of her travel points to book us a room at the Sheraton On The Falls hotel. It was so sweet. I started crying. It seems silly but there has been SO much stress lately that this seemed like the sweetest thing anyone could ever do for us.

Anyway, other than the colds that all of us seem to have, life is pretty much the same. How are YOU doing????