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Chapter Nineteen
Blood is Thicker Than Water
(Thursday continued...)
"[Jerome's] heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth
it whithersoever He will."
~ Proverbs 21:1 ~
 he
afternoon had went so well for Chuck, that Vera ventured to suggest that they all
go down and visit Arnold at Mullen-Overholt.
"After all," reasoned Vera, "Charlie has been in Twin Yucca all of
two days and she still hasn't visited her grandpa."
"I know," replied Chuck.
"And while we're on the subject, you haven't visited your father yet, either!"
"I saw him the night I arrived," reminded Chuck.
"That was not a real visit," responded Vera, wiping the kitchen table with
a damp cloth.
"I guess," replied Chuck, slowly. He wasn't eager to see his father in
the deteriorated state that eighteen years worth of Alzheimer's had left him in.
"You act as though you don't want to see him!" observed Vera.
"I do, Mom," refuted Chuck. "It's just hard seeing him that way."
"What do you think it does to me?" exclaimed Vera, tossing the cloth into
the sink. "I've been taking care of him for eighteen years! Don't you think
it's hard for me to watch him fade away, bit by bit, until there's nothing left of
the man I once knew?"
Chuck apologized to his mother. He wondered if Charlie was ready to see her grandfather.
It was true that she knew he had this illness, but Chuck didn't think she was really
aware of what was going to happen to him. In a way, he wanted her to remain untouched
by the harsh reality of Alzheimer's, but Chuck knew that it would be impossible to
shield her from it. Then he remembered Dr. Estrada's sage advice: "The unknown
always frightens us. Truth is important because it helps us to understand the inevitable,
and arms us with the facts to prepare for it." When Chuck told his Mom that
he and Charlie would go see Arnold that afternoon, Vera was delighted.
A tornado is a funnel-shaped cloud that descends on land, creating havoc and destruction
in its wake. Places that we thought could never change, suddenly transform into martian-like
landscapes. Alzheimer's is a kind of tornado. We suddenly find ourselves faced with
decisions that we never would have thought probable-- never, in a million years.
And never in a million years would we have thought of actually making that decision.
He didn't know it yet, but today, Chuck would be faced with such a decision.
It all began early that Thursday morning, in Jerome's office at Mullen-Overholt Nursing
Home, with the unexpected arrival of a FedEx parcel containing Chuck's financial
records and personal papers. Inside was a note from Chuck's former landlady, explaining
that the papers and enclosed items were accidentally left behind in the apartment
when Chuck had moved out. (Chuck had given her Mullen-Overholt as a forwarding address,
for he was uncertain exactly where his brother lived.)
Being the older brother, Jerome automatically assumed the responsibility of handling
Chuck's financial affairs. There was no hidden motive on Jerome's part, other than
to expedite things as quickly as possible. He had been through this before with his
father, so Jerome knew the paces. However experienced he thought he was, the older
brother was unprepared to see the disarray of Chuck's financial status. He wondered
how Chuck had managed to function with such a slipshod way of paying bills and spending
money.
Jerome remembered how his father, who, even before being diagnosed with Early Onset
Alzheimer's at the age of fifty-two, had displayed symptoms of being incapable of
taking care of the family finances entirely by himself. Arnold would not listen to
anyone. He simply refused to believe that he was no longer able to do something he
had always been able to do before. Jerome groaned at the memory of the many fights
he and his "stubborn as a mule" father had over money. Arnold would often
become so angry that his face grew alarmingly red. The fact that history seemed to
be repeating itself was almost more than Jerome could take.
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