June 23, 2021 |
Early this year I learned my 83 year old mother Ruth was selling her townhouse in Las Vegas. I was shocked to say the least. I knew the real estate market was at its height and realized she likely needed additional finances to live with special accommodations of some sort.
Over a decade ago I had sent Ruth a letter offering to extend any help I could provide in her growing age but never heard back. So I was grateful to recently learn Ruth ended up having her 75 year old half sister take care of her needs late in life.
All was good, that is until I later learned from Ruth's neighbor she had contracted advanced Alzheimers back in 2020 and was moved temporarily to an assisted living facility she left in August of 2021.
Mother's African Mask Decor |
It was hard enough for a young mother losing her first home to the Baldwin Hills dam break back in 1963. Later Ruth became the ex wife of a delusional and abusive adulterer T.V. musician, Buddy Merrill, on the The Lawrence Welk Show having divorced him after 25 years of a highly dysfunctional marriage.
Than Ruth lost my sister Melody back in 2001 to bacterial meningitis. Ruth's five grandchildren were then adopted out to two other families after she was summoned to pull Melody off of life support from her damaged brain. Ruth had also lost her own mom to breast cancer when she was just 3 years old. Many losses to face, and now Alzheimer's?
When I saw photos of inside Ruth's townhouse for sale there were many African masks with elephant figurines so I figured she must have visited Africa in her many travels around the world.
After Ruth's retirement in 1998 from being a corporate executive at Wrigley, she did much traveling with a friend. I only know this after speaking with her adopted-out grandchild she did things with as well as my aunt on her side of the family.
After the pandemic in 2020 it's clear Alzheimer's took root due to Ruth being holed up in her place without visitors. Thankfully, Ruth's half sister was there to transport her to another state where she's being cared for. At first this info was difficult to come by being a secretive accommodation that many relatives couldn't reach Ruth so there was a lot of worry what had happened to her. Thankfully my research skills helped determine everything was fine, except for the sad Alzheimer's part.
For anyone whose acquainted with my cloud photography work, I've taken many unusual photographs from my Nob Hill apartment window that overlooks San Francisco Bay with a partial view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Sometimes these photos seem to tell a story of some sort. After I learned of the Alzheimer diagnosis, I went back to these unusual female-like cloud formation visitations.
When I began to take photos of a pattern of female cloud formations that appeared to be visiting me at my window that I joked with someone it appeared to be that of my mother. When I recalled these unusual photos I took back in 2021 I decided to go through and see what story they would tell if they made any sense.
My interpretations of something related to Alzheimer's appears in my cloud formation comes next.
Ruth's townhouse was sold on February 11, 2022 after being on the market since December 24, 2021.
As far as Buddy Merrill, 85, he recently died on December 5, 2021 of throat cancer at a home hospice where he lived a year after being diagnosed in 2020. I haven't seen Buddy since 1986 nor have spoken with him since 1998. After learning of Buddy's passing, I went back to my cloud photography library again to review cloud formations in 2021. I came up with this sunset photo indicating some kind of affliction of a throat issue in this alien-like cloud below.
If you visited these photos on a computer browser, they may not look like much to you due to over pix-elation. You can visit my Instagram page with an iPad or smart phone device to view higher quality condensed pixels.
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