I haven’t kept my diary this month, I couldn’t muster up the energy. Everything I’ve written here, I wrote at the end of the month.
Goodbye
I parted ways with my carer Carlien, who cooked us an Indonesian dish called Soto as a parting gift. She had been with me for a year and eight months, two days a week at first, later reduced to once a week. She knew everything there was to know about movies, watched the same shows I did, taught me how to download things and helped me read. She is a physical therapist who specialises in breathing and relaxation techniques, a field in which she’d found a job. Saying goodbye to an old carer also means we have to train a new one, which is always a challenge. The new carer started on Monday, May 1st. She was home alone with me. I’d hoped Ward would be home, but he was gone for the day. Thus, we had to manage together, I was nervous and she was unsure. When we gave her instructions we had focused on helping me use the bathroom and omitted the communication part, which proved to be a bottleneck. I was getting more and more frustrated until she decided to call Hein. That was probably the moment she decided to quit. She left that very same day at 12 o’clock.
Cycling for ALS
My in-laws, along with the ALS Foundation, have been busy planning out the World ALS Day charity drive on June 21st. I’ll be watching the cyclists go from the sideline. It’s also possible to do indoor skiing for charity.
Of course, the big question is: will this make ALS more high-profile? The passing of Sylvia de Leur has lead to an increase in internet searches about ALS. The traffic on my website suddenly skyrocketed. Celebrities don’t often die of ALS, but whenever one does, ALS gets a big boost in publicity.
Other than that…
There’s not too much else to write about April. My mother has been temporarily (?) admitted to a nursing home, about 100 metres away from her house. Both times we came to visit, we took a walk back to her old house. Roel, Floor’s boyfriend, turned out to be a great easter egg hunter. Tineke, who takes care of my Friday lunches, departed on a five-month journey through Southern and Eastern Europe. And Floor isn’t too worried about her finals, which are inching closer.