World War ll Vet w/Alzheimer's gets a day out. You won't believe where he wants to go

My dad was a World War ll vet and in May of 2015 the Veterans Administration had reassessed my father's service related disabilities and found him to be 100% service connected disabled. We were then informed in writing that he was entitled to receive several benefits. One was a grant towards the purchase of a handicap vehicle. Another was a vertical platform lift installed at our home to give us a way to be able to finally get my father out of the house in his wheel chair. All our egresses had stairs and the house was not configured appropriately for ramps to be erected. Aside from one ambulance ride for an emergency hospital stay, he had never once been able to leave the house in the last 21 months of his life.

After months of constantly pursuing the VA and overcoming hurdle after hurdle to obtain the promised benefits, (I spent well over 600 hours advocating on my fathers behalf from May-February), the vehicle was finally approved and delivered in the beginning of February. My father and I had spent the entire previous spring and summer months fantasizing and discussing where he would like to go once he had a way to leave the house and be mobile again.

My dad had lost all of his previous doctors, once he became trapped in the house, and I couldn’t help but wonder how differently things may have been for him if the VA hadn't dragged out the process as long as they did and we had been able to still continue bringing my dad to see all his medical specialists during these wasted months.

Prior to becoming my fathers advocate I had no idea of the horrific bureaucratic nightmare most of our veterans are routinely forced to endure when trying to obtain their benefits! No veteran should ever be forced to have to constantly fight for and then wait on ungodly long waiting lists to be able to obtain what they earned and deserve for defending and serving this country!!! Now that I am far more educated about veteran affairs, due to having to become my father's voice for him, I find it absolutely appalling to see how our veterans are treated more often than not!

Finally receiving the vehicle was bittersweet as we still had no egress by which to get my father out of the house. My father wanted to enjoy his new car and I wasn't going to wait for the VA to finally deliver on the lift so I arranged for a few of us to get together and hand carry my dad out of the house, down the stairs in a harness, to the car.

Due to his Alzheimer's, none of us knew what his answer might be when we asked him where he wanted to go on his special day. I was shocked that his only request was to go buy flowers and bring them to be placed on his parents grave. My father never went to cemeteries.

I have found that many people, including “dementia professionals” along with nonprofessionals routinely state lots of “rules” about how to treat someone with Alzheimer’s and or dementia. A lot is also stated about what subjects are considered appropriate to talk about or not to talk about with someone with dementias. One subject matter that is constantly referred to as inappropriate to discuss with them is that of talking about previous deaths of their loved ones. My personal experience and opinion is that no one can possibly know for sure how any one individual with dementia will react to any particular issue on any given day as each and every one reacts and responds to things differently and in their own way!

Obviously, for my father, it was critical for him to be able to acknowledge and show respect and love for his mom and dad and he was very aware that they were deceased and fully understood the concept. Perhaps at the time, somewhere in his soul, he was well aware that he would be traveling home soon to reunite with them, perhaps his clarity at that moment during this trip to the cemetery had far more significance then any of us had been able to realize that day! My father passed away 12 days later.

I feel blessed and grateful to have been a part of that meaningful outing with him that special day.

www.Facebook.com/PaintingToRemember

music credit-
Awaiting Return - Atlantean Twilight
by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution
license
(https://creativecommons.org/license
s/by/4.0/)
Source:
http://incompetech.com/music/royalt
y-free/index.html?
isrc=USUAN1100318
Artist: http://incompetech.com/redit-

Видео World War ll Vet w/Alzheimer's gets a day out. You won't believe where he wants to go канала Painting To Remember