Yes, sleeping through the night is an impossibility, I discovered, when you’re caring for an Alzheimer’s patient. Mother had no sense of time and would get up in the middle of the night, thinking it was day I found I would never tell her we were going somewhere the next day. She’d get up in the night and begin getting ready.

But God helps us through it. I look back now and know I was priviledged to care for Mother.

However, it did reach a point where I had to place her in a nursing home. I had an outside-the-home job, too, and Jim had a business to run. It started as day care at a nursing home, then evolved to residency. At some point you realize you can’t physically do everything, much as you want to.