Wrong Movie and a Runaway

Nov. 22 2008
Tonight was scary. Elbert was paranoid for the first time. He started talking about a bunch of men coming to find him so he hunted all over the house for a place to hide. When he was unsuccessful at finding a place to hide, he wanted to find his gun, 'Just in case I need it' he reassured me. Of course, I had NO IDEA where his gun was.

He would not shut up. Luckily we had earlier had the foresight to store his pistols in our son in laws safe. The rifles and shotgun was in the back of a closet upstairs. I knew he couldn't find them but just the thought of him having those sorts of things on his mind really concerned me.

I took him in the bathroom and got him washed up for bed. I could not get him into the shower because as he put it, 'I don't want to be naked when those men get here'. Heaven forbid that these imaginary mercenaries would see him without clothes.

He started talking about his Dad who had been dead for 24 years. Where was Daddy, where was his bed, why hasn't he come by yet and so on. My nerves were getting frayed so to get him to lie down I put him in my bed and turned the tv on. The Texas Tech-Oklahoma football game was on. He sat propped up on the pillows, his eyes closed for a couple hours then I put him in his bed and prayed he'd stay there.

I'd been gone the week before. Made a trip to NY to see that newest grandson and had left my daughter and son in law in charge. I had spent the week cuddling that sweet bundle from heaven and now I was back in realityville. When I had returned home another daughter told me something very disturbing. It seems that her hubby was in his workshop one night when he got this strange feeling. He didn't know what it was, he just felt ill so he stepped outside the workshop to get a bit of fresh air. It was dark, drizzling rain and son in law noticed someone walking up the sidewalk. This person was dressed in a light colored outfit so the street light shone on them making them look almost ghostlike. Then, he recognized the figure. It was Elbert

John (son in law) ran as fast as he could but slowed down just as he got to Elbert so as to not alarm him. Elbert turned and said, 'well, hello, John'. John asked him where he was going and E. answered, 'Out to check the dogs'. John walked him home. The two caregivers inside had not even missed him.

Suppose Elbert had headed for the busy highway, Suppose John had not had that sick feeling and saw Elbert. I was just ill with the thought of what could have happened. It seems daughter #1 went upstairs to change the sheets on a bed. Elbert was in his bed downstairs and supposedly asleep. She told her husband to listen out for her Dad while she was gone. Only husband was much absorbed in the computer and Elbert got up, walked out of the house and would have been lost had it not been for John.

A week later (and we should have known better) Michael put a dvd in to watch and Elbert and I got into it as well. It was 'No Way To Go', a spy-murder thriller. Like I said, I should have known better considering what had transpired just the week before. The main character was a Naval officer and Elbert identified with him. Kevin Costner played the part and I was enjoying just looking at that good looking hunk of man. But, Elbert confused reality with fiction and started shaking all over saying people with guns were coming to shoot him. I just wanted him to calm down and not be afraid. We can not watch movies or tv shows with any violence, confusion or stress in them because he just doesn't seem to differentiate real with unreal anymore.