{"id":1396,"date":"2014-03-15T08:25:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T13:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2014-03-15T16:36:31","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T21:36:31","slug":"remembering-hazel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/?p=1396","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Hazel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3887\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We lost a friend today.\u00a0 The halls are too quiet without the loud voice of the one who spoke for us all when she\u2019d yell, \u201dShut up!\u201d\u00a0 at the irritating cacophony of beeps and call alarms alerting, that are part of daily life in a nursing home.<\/p>\n

Hazel was a ready source of entertainment and expressed love to anyone whom she deemed worthy.\u00a0 I was a willing recipient.\u00a0 We spent many an afternoon in the west wing day room, surrounded by family and friends, enjoying the banter between Sheila and Hazel, while listening to the comedic comments of Steve Harvey as he hosted Family Feud.<\/p>\n

I would stay in her proximity even to the chagrin on my mother.\u00a0 Hazel knew me as \u201ca nice girl\u201d that she \u201cloved very much.\u201d She would confide to anyone who would listen as I walked away from her that she loved me and I loved her, too. Not only did I enjoy being around Hazel, but grew to know and love her family as well. \u00a0They told me that this Hazel was quite unlike her\u00a0 \u201cold\u201d self.\u00a0 Before succumbing to Alzheimer\u2019s disease, she was a quiet person \u2013 nothing like the incessant dancer, unpredictable talker and open expresser of love that developed.<\/p>\n

As it is with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, time changes things.\u00a0 \u00a0Hazel\u2019s contributions began to slow and her interaction waned.\u00a0 She began to have fewer \u201cgood\u201d days and more \u201cbad\u201d days.\u00a0 \u00a0We watched her fade before our eyes.\u00a0 I visited her at her bedside as her granddaughter kept vigil.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d was the song that flowed from my lips to her ears.\u00a0 She listened to my voice as she had many times before.\u00a0 By the next day, her daughter had arrived to see her off.\u00a0 After considering what kind of music Hazel liked, we broke out in singing \u201cYou\u2019re a Grand Old Flag\u201d.\u00a0 Uncanny, we both knew all the words and moved on to \u201cGod Bless America\u201d.\u00a0 Hazel\u2019s son watched in amusement.\u00a0 Hazel seemed to enjoy the attention and we enjoyed the camaraderie.<\/p>\n

Then she was gone – but only out of sight.\u00a0 She arrived at her final destination March 13th<\/sup> 2014, in the morning hours, before her family was able to get there.\u00a0 She slipped off while no one was looking.\u00a0 A quiet exit for someone who had been so out spoken while I knew her.<\/p>\n

Farewell dear friend.\u00a0 I will miss your laugh, your smile, and the endless string of words that only you could weave.\u00a0 You made life better on the west wing.<\/p>\n

I love you, Hazel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We lost a friend today.\u00a0 The halls are too quiet without the loud voice of the one who spoke for us all when she\u2019d yell, \u201dShut up!\u201d\u00a0 at the irritating cacophony of beeps and call alarms alerting, that are part of daily life in a nursing home. Hazel was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,21],"tags":[322,53,326,325,323],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-publication","category-personal","tag-allen-memorial-home","tag-alzheimer-article","tag-barbara-mcleod","tag-bruce-smith","tag-hazel-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4cxZR-mw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1416,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions\/1416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}