Pamaism

I have decided an occasional feature on my blog will be Pamaisms. What is this you ask?

The Pama part of the word is my grandmother, the wittiest quintessential lady I know.

And officially an "ism" is a distinctive characteristic, behavior or quality.

So a Pamaism will be wonderfully nutty witty quotes from my Pama. Although she has lost much of her short term memory due to small strokes, she is the happiest person I know. Her sense of humor and wit is fully intact. Thankfully she doesn't seem to have the most common form of Alzheimer's. She remembers everyone although gets confused about them. I could visit with her for hours. Then 10 minutes from the time I left someone could ask if she has seen me lately and she would say no.

Most of the time she realizes that she has this affliction and makes light of it. The greatest part of all this is that she is the epitome of "Living in the moment." She enjoys every moment to moment and forgets the moment shortly after it happened.

Don't get me wrong there are definitely sad parts to this story like when she kept forgetting her daughter (my mother) had passed away and kept trying to go see her. A very emotional time when we had to keep telling her over and over, the how and the why. And each time it was as if she was hearing it for the first time. Thankfully it somehow sunk in and she asks about it rarely now.

I aspire to be like my grandmother in many ways. And like her I will choose to focus on the positive in this situation. And hopefully I will follow her example.

So my Pamaism for today is this:

My sister was visiting her and asked Pama if she would like to go see the birds in the aviary. Pama said well I don't have lipstick on. Vivian said, that doesn't matter. Pama said, "Well the birds won't recognize me." as she chuckled.

All my love to you Pama,
Joytobe