A lot of what Matt says now is nonsense

As hard as it is to work through the mumbles

Lean in to be closer to hear better

Overcome my own hearing challenges (thanks Dad!)

When I do hear his combo of words, they don’t often make sense

Yesterday at breakfast, he was saying something about cats

We don’t have cats now

No stray cat wonders onto property

There are no cats here

Last night when I put dinner on the table, he was wondering around, doing this or that in the kitchen

I’d say “hey, dinner is on the table”

Or “Why don’t you sit here by me and eat your dinner”

He’d walk in a different direction mumbling something

I remember when Walter’s words were mostly nonsense

I remember engaging him in a conversation

The conversation was more of a rhythm of word like sounds than a true conversation

But he enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, the memory of those moments actually brings me joy

Maybe we are getting to that same place, but there is no joy this time, only frustration

With Uncle Lewy, nothing seems to be “always”

He could easily, today, be able to put a sentence together

There really isn’t a “predictable” with this

I’ve always been a literal person

Tell me what you need, want, believe, think

The opposite of that is reading a situation and making assumptions about what a person needs, wants, believes, thinks

This seems to be a muscle I need to develop, strengthen, grow

Perhaps the days he can literally communicate are coming to an end, maybe not

Maybe I’ll just be riding this sea saw for a while

The one thing we can do, probably should do, is enroll him in some regular speech therapy

A support group colleague of mine gave me a Parkinson’s focused set of resources

I’m going to explore that this week, talk with the new neurologist we will be seeing soon about this.