Day 196 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

We had a nice day with Grayson today. We arrived to pick him up for church this morning and while I was going through the administrative process of signing him out of the facility, Regina went to get Grayson out of his apartment and into the car. Grayson couldn't figure out how to get up out of his chair – he was stuck, as we call it. The technical term is apraxia, and the simple description is the inability to carry out a task, even though the desire and the capability is present. When this happens to Grayson, he seems to get "stuck" on step 1 of a multi-step activity. After he gets started, things seem to fall into place.

Regina did manage to get Grayson vertical and moving toward the car, so we piled in and went to church together for the first time in several weeks. We were warmly welcomed by our adopted congregation in Bakersfield, but were shocked and saddened to hear that one of the first people that had welcomed us to the church had passed suddenly and without warning just a few weeks before. Her light of welcome shone so brightly, and she was way too young to be called home. There must have been a great need for one more angel in heaven.

After we bid our farewells at church, lunch was in order. We engaged Grayson in the decision, and asked him a series of A or B questions – hamburgers or burrito, burrito or sushi, sushi or pizza, pizza or taco – you get the idea. Grayson chose the second item each time. The pattern was so repeatable, that the answers were not valid. We decided on hamburgers!

We ran a few errands after lunch. We needed to purchase a new blood pressure cuff for Grayson, as his old one had given up the ghost. Grayson also wanted a flag for Memorial Day. We purchased both of those items before heading back to the residence.

We signed him in, and made preparations to go swimming. As luck would have it, the lifeguard was on her lunch break, so it would be 30 minutes before we could get into the pool. Since it was 93 in Bakersfield today, the pool was high on our list of activity preferences! To fill the time, Regina took Grayson over to the Swain Center to play ping pong. (I took a power nap!) Grayson did very well at the ping pong table, with the exception of chasing the lost balls.

We got into the pool around 4:15 – or at least I plunged in while Grayson sloooooooowly put one toe in, then another. Finally he was in the water, and he was fine. Grayson was almost childlike in his exploration of the pool. He explored the grout lines of the tile, and slowly walked around inside the pool to see what he could see. Most of the time Grayson wore a big smile like a child with a new toy. For the longest time, Grayson and I floated in the water. I'd like to say that we talked, but he mostly listened as I rambled on about the significance of Memorial Day, and how it is the one day of the year where the flag is flown at half staff until noon, then raised back to full staff for the rest of the day.

After we left the pool area, Regina and I shared hugs and farewells and headed over the hill back home. I'll leave you with one last picture that Regina captured in the pool this afternoon. Enjoy!

Pax!

Brant