Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Something I've been meaning to mention for over a year...
...an interesting little Dementia-Lite glitch.
When my mother was in the hospital and skilled nursing facility last August I removed all her jewelry, which included her engagement and wedding rings. The day she left the skilled nursing facility I brought these items with me so she could leave fully bejeweled. She put on all her jewelry herself. A month or so later I noticed that when she replaced her wedding rings she put them on her right hand. I mentioned the discrepancy to her and, said that I found the misplacement interesting because in some cultures when someone is widowed they move their wedding rings from their left to their right hand.
She was startled; not that I reminded her of Dad's death but that I thought her rings were on the wrong hand. Not only did she insist that she had placed them correctly, she "remembered" that the rings had never left her hand "since the day your father put them there" and that she had worn them in the medical facilities. Although this particular pair of rings is her second pair, the "upgrades" which my father purchased for her on Guam several years into their marriage, and, as well, every time she's been hospitalized since we've been living together I've been entrusted with keeping her jewelry, I didn't argue.
To this day, her wedding and engagement rings remain on her right ring finger.
When my mother was in the hospital and skilled nursing facility last August I removed all her jewelry, which included her engagement and wedding rings. The day she left the skilled nursing facility I brought these items with me so she could leave fully bejeweled. She put on all her jewelry herself. A month or so later I noticed that when she replaced her wedding rings she put them on her right hand. I mentioned the discrepancy to her and, said that I found the misplacement interesting because in some cultures when someone is widowed they move their wedding rings from their left to their right hand.
She was startled; not that I reminded her of Dad's death but that I thought her rings were on the wrong hand. Not only did she insist that she had placed them correctly, she "remembered" that the rings had never left her hand "since the day your father put them there" and that she had worn them in the medical facilities. Although this particular pair of rings is her second pair, the "upgrades" which my father purchased for her on Guam several years into their marriage, and, as well, every time she's been hospitalized since we've been living together I've been entrusted with keeping her jewelry, I didn't argue.
To this day, her wedding and engagement rings remain on her right ring finger.
