A pause here from our seemingly carefree life to talk about a more serious issue and bear with me for some editorializing. One of the reasons we have stayed pretty close to Meaford for the summer was Jo-Anne's mom, Helen, who has the awful Alzheimer's disease. The worst part of this disease is that a tremendous burden is placed upon the care givers, in this case Jo-Anne's dad, Bill. He worked extremely hard trying to keep Helen home and at one point had people coming several times a day, six days a week, but it got too much to handle. As a matter of fact, he's been nominated by the government for "Care giver of the year."

Finally Helen became too much to handle and almost uncontrollable at times and application was made for the local long-term care home with space became available in August. At that point she was unable to recognize anyone and was prone to wandering and aggression. She went into a semi-private room and is on the list for a private one. Even though you are at the control of the provincial government the process has been very timely and she should be in a private room shortly. I wish our government was as concerned about its seniors as they are here.

Now Bill's attention has shifted from caring for Helen at home to going over to the home every day to provide comfort and make sure the care givers there have as much help as they need. Jo-Anne is over there every day as well, and needless to say, it is a very emotional time for all who watch this relentless deterioration of what was a vibrant and loving human being, so there have been a lot of tears from all concerned.