Yeah, she’s as gone for me as I am for her. I like it.
fourteen
“Why are we here?” Dad asks as we wait in the lobby of the doctor’s office.
I don’t like being here anymore than he does, but regular checkups are important.
“We have to see the doctor,” I remind him for the third time.
“Are you sick? Agatha, you need to take better care of yourself,” he chastises me.
I let him. I would rather he think it’s me than him. That’s the first thing they taught us. We can gently try and trigger his memory to bring him back, but if he begins to get agitated, it is best to let him live in the world he is currently in. Sometimes it’s the present, but these days it is more the past.
“Jerry Wayne,” Rachelle, one of the nurses who has been here since we started bringing Dad here, calls out.
“Hey Rachelle,” I say as we head toward her.
“Hey. How is it going today?” she asks me.
“He’s not here today.”
That’s all I need to say. She gives me an understanding smile as she turns to my dad.
“Mr. Wayne. Thank you for coming. Can we get you up on the scale?”
“Why? Agatha is the one who is sick,” he mumbles.
“Oh, of course. We need to get her weight too, but you know I always like checking on you too.”
He gives her a little smirk. “You do, don’t you? You know, I am single. We should go out sometime.”
She laughs. “Of course, but first, let me see what you got going on.”
He dutifully lets her get his weight and blood pressure before she leads us to a room.
“Any concerns?” she asks me.
“No. It’s the same. Memory is going more than not these days,” I admit.
She nods. “Will still doing okay?”
“He struggles the same as me, but we make do. We don’t want to put him in a home.”
“We aren’t putting Dad in a home, Agatha. He isn’t even old,” Dad hisses at me.
I give him a soft smile. “Of course not. I was talking about Granddad.”
He frowns. “I thought Uncle Henry was taking care of him.”
I look at Rachelle and mouth the word “sorry” before I make up my lie.
“Uncle Henry has to go to Paris for work.”
“Oh, that’s right. Paris. He always was too big for his britches.”
Dad starts to mumble to himself about his Uncle Henry while I turn my attention back to Rachelle.
“Caregiver fatigue is a real thing. Are you finding ways to give yourself a break?” she asks.
