I’m a full-time caregiver to my 90-year-old dad who was recently diagnosed with, as he says, “a little bit of dementia.” If you know anything about dementia, you know how brutal this is for all of us, him most of all. He’s a marine (once a marine, always a marine) and proud that he worked full time until he was eighty-three. Completely independent until eighty-eight. Spry, sharp, funny. Went to the YMCA every day, rode his bike around the neighborhood three times a day, and then lost his balance and fell at home, breaking three ribs and his shoulder. He’s been in and out of the hospital ever since and gets a little bit weaker every time. We lose a little bit more of him every time. A rollator walker has replaced his beloved beach cruiser, and he’s become mostly housebound. He worked outdoors with horses his entire life, so this is soul-crushing. He misses being outside and talking to neighbors and their dogs (the dogs most of all). We take drives, but it’s just not the same.
I’d love to be able to take him around in a golf cart instead… it would give him the chance to see more and easily talk and interact with his community. He’s lonely and bored cooped up in the house, and this would give him a chance to get some fresh air and expand his social world. We live in a small neighborhood with lots of walkers, bikers, and dogs, and he’s so missed being part of that world. This would help him rejoin it. He’ll be disappointed to learn we’re not going to let him drive, but thrilled to know we’ll bring our black lab Maisie along for the rides.
