Sam's Understanding

I had a great weekend with Sam. I took her out for the day on Saturday. I first drove with her through a McDonald's drive through window to get Sam a large strawberry milkshake. She was amused by it all. I also drove by a lot of shops and shopping centers and Sam really was interested in going into some of the stores. I told her that we might try doing some shopping next weekend. We then went to Joan and Bill's apartment and stayed there all day. We were able to watch the new artist show on Bravo, and comment on it together. Sam was fascinated by it all and made some faces at the artwork. She even said out loud at one point..."I have some better pieces than that"...which of course is true and of course is the statement that any decent artist would make after watching the show. We had a lot of fun watching it together. I realized over the weekend that Sam's short term memory seems to be getting much better. In the afternoon, when I asked her about the milkshake, she remembered it was strawberry and that it was from McDonald's. She in fact remembered the whole morning, which was terrific. I had also brought Sam her camera for the weekend, and I just put it around her neck. She had a great big smile on her face when I did that. Although she didn't take any pictures, she held onto the camera and was quite content to have it as part of her being. We were also very affectionate with each other and that was really nice. On Sunday, we went to Inner Art class and Sam made a beautiful painting. She also shared her work with everyone at the end of the class which was amazing, as she used her voice to tell everyone that her piece was "heartfelt". The class gave her a round of applause. Also, one of the CNAs who works with Sam a lot, told me a wonderful story about her. On Thursday morning when Andrea, the CNA, went in to wake Sam up at the usual time- around 7:00 am, Sam was already up, wide awake in bed. Andrea was surprised and said "Sam- you're up already?". Sam used her voice and said, that she'd been up for awhile and was "very upset". Andrea asked her why she was so upset and Sam said "because this is all very hard on Marcie- It's all very hard on her". Andrea said she started tearing up when Sam said that. Andrea told Sam that she was getting much better and pretty soon, Sam would be back home with me. I was very touched by Sam's words, and of her understanding, which some days runs deep.