February 8 2007

John was very upset on Sunday and Monday this past weekend because I wasn't taking him home with me. I was upset so I stayed away for 2 days. Today I took him his clean laundry, and found him much like Chris did on Saturday. He introduced me to a physio. as his wife Michelle, and told her that we had 4 adult children. He spoke to some other people in the lounge. He talked about some subject that was in today's Star. At one point he started to garble his words so he said that he'd better shut up until he could put together a better sentence! A little while later we did about a dozen words in the crossword puzzle. He was very pleased to see me. I stayed until about 3:15 when he had begun to get agitated.

Armand Garbutt

Feb 4

It was a quick visit this weekend, and when I showed up at the hospital around 3 p.m., Dad was fast asleep in his geri-chair. I decided to sit and wait for him to wake up, and if he didn't, well at least I got to see him. He did wake up at about 3:45 and we chatted for a while. He seemed more alert than usual (and Mom says he's been very stable physically), and was frustrated by his difficulty expressing himself. This is the hardest for me -- when he seems to be aware of what's happening to him, and wishes he could do something about it. The most heartbreaking thing in the world is to watch him try to express a thought, even if it doesn't seem to be real, and not be able to finish it.

His sense of humour's still there, which is probably his greatest gift to the world. And he broke into song at least twice, something that was pretty common through most of his life.

We had a very short talk and I left at about quarter after 4.

Chris