Little Rock KOA Campground
North Little Rock, Arkansas
Thursday, April 23, 2009, 5:30 pm CDT

Sunny, breezy, and unseasonably hot
Temperature: 88F now, 93 earlier.
Altitude: 264 feet

This is our second night in Little Rock, and we visited the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum today. Worth a stop if you're in the area.

Aside from that, however, we've spent a good bit of the time on the cellphone and reading and answering emails. For those of you outside our immediate family who haven't heard, Ed's mother is in a bad way. In fact, she is slowly dying and we now hear that she may not last through the weekend. She has had Alzheimer's Disease for a few years now and has declined markedly in the past six months. Since January she's been in and out of hospitals and rehab facilities and we knew the end was coming. When Ed saw her last Friday, she hardly knew him and spoke little. Ed and his brother decided then to bring her home and call in hospice care to make her comfortable for her final weeks or months. Still, we just thought she'd see the summer. But things are moving a lot faster than we expected and Ed is preparing to fly back to New Jersey (checking airline schedules from various cities along our route). Karen and Charley will stay in the camper wherever we may be at the time, and Ed will return when things in New Jersey are settled.

Until we get everything sorted out, we may not be blogging very much, but please check every few days for updates.

This is of course a sad occasion, but Alzheimer's is a strange disease. One minute the victim is lucid, the next not. Recently, though, the lucid moments have been few and far between. In a way Ed lost his mother when she no longer knew him or was unable to think clearly enough to carry on a reasonable conversation. In that sense, his mourning began months ago and this is just the end of a long, sad journey. Vivian Dorothy Edwards Guest would be 90 years old on May 30th.