Ch.55 Working Together
March 2020
I’m getting our blog ready to publish as a book. It’s complicated. Today I need to do something a little tricky: is there a perfect match between the table of contents, the alphabetical list of chapters, and the text headings? Do the chapter numbers match? Are the titles identical in all three places?
Maybe Pat could help. She agrees and we head to the computer, where I hand her the alphabetical list. I call out the name of the first chapter and compare it with the text while Pat is supposed to confirm that the alphabetical list says the same thing.
However, I soon realize that Pat is having trouble finding the right place. Each time I tell her a title (Example: “Good Days”) she has to search through all three printed pages of titles looking for the correct one. My God, I think, has she forgotten the alphabet? Then I remember that sequencing is especially difficult for people with Lewy Body. I try giving Pat one hint each time (Example: “Good Days begins with the letter G, Honey”). That’s all it takes. Pat immediately goes to the right place in the list each time. By the finish she is ahead of me and able to give me the correct information before I ask for it and she has no need for a hint.
We wrote in a previous chapter that we are still a team. I feel the same today as when we wrote that essay last year: grateful, relieved, and loving. We also wrote a chapter about the two of us being care partners rather than me being the caregiver and Pat the care receiver. Here my feelings are more celebratory: I want to yell “YES,” we are indeed care partners and that is all that matters.
Pat’s comments on Working Together:
Sometimes we have to talk together about what we are writing about. Then the results are usually good. We’re often in agreement in various ways. It’s a usual thing and is working fine. I seldom feel misunderstood. This [blog] is different because each example starts out with me not understanding but then going to understanding.