Halloween 2011 was quite an eventful weekend..
As Halloween fell on a Monday, most of the festivities were set to be the Saturday before. Because of this, I made a plan with a friend to dress up and go to a local bar. All in all, it was a very nice time, with possibly a little too much to drink& not nearly enough sleep.. Both awful choices for being a caregiver. I was off my game& boy was dad ready for this moment...
To set things up, I should also mention we hadn't realized but Friday evening my friends keys had gone missing. We assumed that she had misplaced them. Just to be careful I made sure I asked dad about the keys a few times, tried to bribe him with special snacks, and a little bit of trickery to see if he would give up them up. No luck.
Well, Sunday morning rolled around and Dad got his perfect moment. Mom was headed to the store to pick up some things for a fun BBQ dinner and my friend and I were just trying to keep ourselves upright doing things around the house.. We failed horribly. Within ten minutes of Mom leaving we were both passed out on the couch, leaving Dad unattended.. with the keys to a car.
We were awoken a half an hour later to a state trooper banging on the door, Dad in cuffs, and some serious confusion. While napping he had taken off in my friend's car and headed to the corner store to get some snacks. With his insatiable appetite he was just walking around the store, opening snacks and just stuffing food in his face. At this point, he was barely communicative so the workers had no idea what to do. Just imagine a 6'4" man walking around opening food, not paying, and not answering any questions. Not to mention the blank stare he had. They had no choice but to call the cops. He was just as unresponsive to the officer and continued to eat whatever he could get his hands on. Eventually, with some work I'm sure, they got him to tell them his address and put him in the back of the cop car. He came home unshaken, wet from an accident, and ready to eat more. (I'm telling you, insatiable!)
It was a terrible moment for me, trying to explain to this VERY polite officer how my father was ill, I had obviously made a mistake, and I would really appreciate if he could just take pity on us. He was more then kind and understand. I quickly learned I didn't have to push the pity card because oh did he feel awful for us already. Twenty minutes with dad and he couldn't imagine what our life was like..
No charges were pressed, a kind bystander paid for what he had eaten, and all that was left was the clean up at home. I quickly had him clean, in new clothes, a new depends, and ready for his next meal before mom even got home.
It's shocking that, at that point, Dad was unable to do simple things such as mow the lawn like he used to, or help on the farm. BUT he was able to take keys, hide& lie about them, and wait for the perfect moment to sneak out and drive to the local store to eat. It's amazing how the mind works I suppose.. but we did learn a few lessons that day. Keys were guarded extra carefully, we were more diligent with watching Dad, and don't ever doubt his abilities when he really wants something.
