Tuesday, March 3, 2009

brain chemistry

It is finally happening. My mother, bless her, is losing her marbles. She is in marvelous health for 90, but our conversations in our every day phone visits now center around the "little people" who crowd her house. There are some ten of them now, including the little skinny girl of about three years old. My mother says they arrange themselves in the strangest positions around the room, getting in the way. She tells them to leave and sometimes six or so will evaporate to come back later. My father is there sometimes now as well.

It is all so matter of fact that it sounds completely logical. Maybe it is. It certainly makes one question one's own sanity. I mean, who knows which reality is "real". I do remember the questions in philosophy class as to whether or not "that red chair" is really there. In whose reality is it really there?

As one comes to the end of a long life, and brain chemistry plays tricks or dissolves neurons, perhaps this is the last and best Broadway show. At least it is marvelously entertaining.

5 comments:

harrybell said...

You reminded me of my own mother who died a few years ago at 92. She too went through this period of strange events. For a while, she was convinced that all her relatives would gather outside her window, playing trumpet, drum and guitar, while my aunt serenaded her.

Gail Siptak said...

Thanks, Harry. It is indeed a strange time. And your mother had music!

harrybell said...

She did. And chocolates, flowers and a proposal of marriage from Tony Blair!

Beryl Moody said...

Gosh, I don't feel so alone now. My mother is 97 and gives me daily updates on the race of people who live at the bottom of the ocean, the volcano that is about to erupt in Fresno and the asteroid which may destroy everything a few hours from now. She tells me that Obama has been deposed and the Clintons have taken over the White House. Who knew!

Gail Siptak said...

Wow, Beryl, even better! I am in the river of taking care of my mother and placing her in a fabulous assisted living place....I'm up to the neck in details but really starting to enjoy my mother's new take on life. Wild and funny sometimes awful....and I could never paint what she sees!!

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Gail Siptak
I am living and painting in the little town of Houston. A far way from my San Francisco beginnings. I paint what I see of the human condition, be it human, animal or object. The glimmer of humor, pathos, and spirit in so much of what I see is the basis of what I paint.
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