I'm still alive and kicking
By Marsha
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
Midland, Michigan
June 30, 2024 8:27am CST
Hi all. I've been lazy about checking in from time to time. Partially because I know I won't be here much to leave responses on everyone's posts. Even though I know many of you don't mind it seems wrong to me not to.
We moved my sister M from her apartment in Detroit to our hometown this past Thursday. My brother owns a 28ft covered trailer and drove that to Detroit. We enlisted the help of someone that worked our business in the past and who happens to be the son of my sister, T's significant other.
Holy cow, he's a workhorse. I think that's the correct term. He also helped out on Fri.
So, on Thursday we got to her place at 9:30 and began getting a lot into totes. We would have done a lot of that the week before but didn't know then what the moving date was. (We thought it would happen in April).
B, the helper and my brother, T, did all the work of carrying and loading the trailer while the ladies filled totes and boxes. We didn't leave Detroit until about eight on that night.
Originally, my sister and I thought we'd return later to clean but my brother thought we should do all that on Thursday so we wouldn't have to return. But we weren't able to get everything into the trailer or my van, and by the time eight o clock came we were to tired to do much cleaning.
Fri my brother brought the trailer to my sister's condo and he and B unloaded the heavy furniture. My brother asked his daughter in law for help and she brought her five kids who brought up most of the totes.
For those of you that don't know or don't remember my sister, M, has been living in Detroit since she went to college there. She has the beginnings of Alzheimer's and we wanted her closer to her family so we could help her and be more available to her as her memory fails. We also want the chance to enjoy spending time with her before she can't remember who we are.
She spent several hours at my house yesterday mostly so T, my sister could work on some boxes without M watching her every move. M used my computer to check her email because she doesn't have Internet yet nor have we found her Chromebook.
I'll try to peek back here in the next week or so but I'll be spending a lot of time at my sister's helping her unpack when I'm not washing windows.
I miss you all.
9 people like this
10 responses
@kareng (59050)
• United States
2 Jul
@MarshaMusselman You never know. I took care of my mom, who had ALZ with physcosis and it was a big ordeal keeping up with her!
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 Jul
@kareng I know she will get worse as time passes but I'm hoping that getting her out of her cluttered place will help clear her mind and prevent her from getting worse so quickly.
My uncle had it years ago and his wife had a rough time taking care of him. I'm sure when my sister gets to bad to manage she'll have to be moved into a care center.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
1 Jul
We are glad too. Now we're taking turns spending time with her as a few siblings are concerned that she might get in her car and drive back to Detroit. I don't think she would do that, but we haven't yet found everything that she had in Detroit that she keeps asking about.
1 person likes this
@much2say (55537)
• Los Angeles, California
3 Jul
@MarshaMusselman The intention was there, but I guess we all know how overwhelming it is to actually move. Time passes and I guess it becomes easier to just stay put. Oh my, sounds like she had a lot of stuff in her place . . . and time will do that too - allow one to accumulate more and more stuff. Thank goodness she has wonderful sisters to take care of her.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
1 Jul
She talked about moving back for several years but I don't think she ever knew where to begin with getting rid of things and packing.
My sister T, and I have been going to Detroit monthly since 2022 and weekly since the fall of 2023. We always brought back a load of good stuff, trash and things to giveaway, and even then it still took ten hours to pack her up. You should have seen her fridge and freezer. It was scary.
Had she started a few years back it might have been more manageable mentally but she was still working full time.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 Jul
@much2say my sister that's the youngest of us all thinks only 20% of her stuff is in her apartment. A large part of the rest is in storage. We are encouraging my sister that just moved to watch for clothing items that she's not in love with to give away. And, surprisingly she's been finding some things already.
1 person likes this
@dfollin (25351)
• United States
30 Jun
Miss you too! Moving is hard especially knowing when you are to move. My mom does that watches every move everyone makes, therefore it took a long time to move her.
That was nice of you all to move your sister closer and all those people helping. Have fun spending time with your sister!
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 Jul
I wash windows a bit for customers which I might have said in my post and we had one customer years ago that followed us from room to room watching out every move.
Some years later she thought one of my workers stole some jewelry from her and called the cops. A day or so later her daughter found the items hidden upstairs. The last had the beginnings of dementia which I didn't know at the time.
1 person likes this
@dfollin (25351)
• United States
4 Jul
@MarshaMusselman Oh wow! My mom is showing possible signs of it, she has for a few years now. She is almost 86.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 Jul
@dfollin there are many types of dementia and Alzheimer's is just one type. There are meds that a person can take that helps prolong it from getting worse to quickly.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 Jul
I'm sure we will just not sure when. There's still a lot of totes in storage it could have gotten put into. Or we might have missed bringing it with us. There's still things there that will partially fill my van when we go back to clean.
1 person likes this
@just4him (317040)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
5 Jul
@MarshaMusselman You know it's there somewhere.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
1 Jul
I hope so too. She did come home for the major holidays but not too much the rest of the year. She was very involved with her church there so my sister here plans on taking her back for church periodically like for Pentecost.
A lot of her friends will be invited to visit at her new place or meet half way at a restaurant where they can spend time together.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 Jul
@JudyEv she might even get tired of us but eventually she will need us more.
The first three nights my youngest sister stayed the night with her but now we're leaving her alone more.
She switched purses recently and then forgot where she put the one with her driver's license and credit cards. It took two days but I happened upon the purse hidden in a tote she keeps clothes in. Her cash want in the purse.
I was trying to clean up her dresser. She has a small bin with her travel items in it on to and I asked if I could move it. I'm back if that was her cash. We're hoping she doesn't hide it again.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339496)
• Rockingham, Australia
1 Jul
@MarshaMusselman Your sister will be taken very good care of between you all.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 Jul
That's for sure. There's no way me and my sister could have done half of what they did especially with all the stairs.
1 person likes this
@grenery8 (10269)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
4 Jul
@MarshaMusselman agree with everything you said
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (180412)
• United States
30 Jun
Glad to know you are alive and kicking, you just seem busy though..and real life does intervene sometimes. You sound busy..hope everything goes well.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
30 Jun
I'm busy or playing games. I have thirty titles of books published in Amazon that I've designed. I began designing logbooks because that's where more of the money is but they can take longer to put together. I need to be more disciplined so I can finished the one I began early this month.
I have two people that might be interested.
And when I'm not busy I okay to many games on my phone.
Thanks for stopping by.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (112776)
• El Paso, Texas
9 Sep
I'm sorry I missed this discussion, I'm not on Mylot that much anymore.
I'm so sorry about your sister, it's such a sad thing for family to watch a loved one go through this but as the doctor told my friend the patient is usually unaware of the problem, hopefully your sister is the happy type.
