It has been just short of one month since my last inconsistent blog entry. I have little excuse; business has been slow as it often is during the winter holiday season.

 I facilitate at 2 support groups for caregivers and the holidays bring out new ways of celebrating in light of Alzheimer's. It is sometimes a sad time for many as memories of more peaceful years flood back.

Recently I decided to tackle clearing out old stuff of mine from our attic. I'd had to move things from the downstairs that was being completely renovated to the attic. I started the cleaning with my albums of photos of family from the 1960s on. As I looked over some and remembered those happy times, I become so melancholy I stopped. It surprised me as all of them were of happy times. Discussing this strange feeling come over me with my friend Francesca, she commented, "Of course you became melancholy; you know you can't ever get those times back. Happy or not, those times are gone." She is right; most of the people in the photos I will never see again, some have died, some moved, some changed so, that we would never now have a relationship like we had. It was a wonder though to me that although 72 now, I still feel like a 35 or 40 year old; that young woman in the photos on a motorcycle, in a canoe, on a white water rafting trip, in a hot air balloon, on the top of a 4000 foot mountain in New Hampshire. I can still do all those activities (I am blessed with a strong solid body) but the people I did them with are no longer here. I guess that is what families who are journeying through Alzheimer's are feeling. Life will never be the same. I guess we all have to recreate a new one when the old life is irretrievable.

Make it a NEW and Happy 2014.