Repeatedly Be Praised

 

              In 2007, my mother and my grand aunt were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the same time. I lived with my mother. My grand aunt lived alone at her house, one hour and a half away from my house by train.  I took care of my mother at home. I also went to my grand aunt’s house to take care of her once a week.

              In the first stage of Alzheimer’s, a patient tends to tell the same story many times. My grand aunt didn’t have that symptom, but my mother did. I was tired of listening to my mother’s endless, repeating stories. She easily forgot that the same story had already been told many times to me.

              In those days, my grand aunt still had the ability to make a phone call to my house. After I visited her house, she called my mother and said thanks. She would call my mother many times. My mother also had Alzheimer’s disease, so she would forget that she had already received the call from my grand aunt. There might be endless phone calling. When I came home, my mother told me that my grand aunt called and said thanks to me.

              After a while, my mother started to say the same thing. She praised me again and again. I was tired of her repeating stories, but listening to her compliments for me repeatedly was not so bad.

              Taking care of Alzheimer’s patients is hard work, but most caregivers don’t have the opportunity to be praised often. Actually, I was repeatedly praised by my mother for a short time, but I should be allowed to enjoy this side benefit for a while.

Picture by studiolaut

Watch

 

              One day, when I was reading posts on Twitter, I found a comment that said, “When I became a member of society, my senior gave me . . . advice: ‘You should wear an expensive watch. It will give you many advantages.’ Then I spent all my money and bought an expensive watch. But it didn’t [give] me any advantage after all.”

              I think the senior didn’t have any malice. In the past, people evaluated others depending on their watches because only expensive watches were considered to be accurate. When I was a child, my first housework chore was setting the clocks according to the time displayed on the TV. In those days, before news programs started, they showed a clock and informed us of the accurate time. All our clocks were spring-wound clocks.

              At that time, only expensive watches showed accurate time. Wearing an expensive watch created appeal. “I am very careful about time management.” That could give the person much advantage. Cheap watches easily became too fast or too slow. However, there were drastic improvements in the watch industry. Even cheaper watches became accurate. The meaning of wearing an expensive watch changed.

              When I was a student, my senior gave me advice: “You should wear expensive shoes. You should have an expensive bag.” Is this advice valuable even now? Nowadays, even cheap bags and cheap shoes are not so bad.

              I must be careful about giving advice to young people. My advice could be outdated. First of all, most young people don’t wear watches now. If I could give advice to young people, it would be this: “Evaluating people depending on their props is not so effective. People are more complex than that.”

Picture by SIF