Water Well Journal

September 2016

Water Well Journal

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My mother moved frequently and went through the few later years seemingly drifting in and out of our existence until she developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease in her early 60s. Caring for Mom after that became a true combined fam- ily effort with the principal caregivers consisting of myself, my wife, my sister and her husband, daughter, aunts, and many remarkable nurses at various care homes. The final years of Mom's life were rough on all, and not the least, her. Many of the vitriol expressions we experienced as youngsters only became more directed and vicious towards us as adults. All the time we tried to demonstrate compassion and understanding, but often the recall of these same com- ments from earlier days would flood our conscience and make this so hard to do. We attributed most of these comments to her rapidly progressive disease. Anyone who tries to convince others that the person does not know what they are going through has never observed a real case of Alzheimer's. You can see it in the person's eyes and from their soul; they are locked inside a body that can no longer willingly respond to command or instruction. My mother rapidly disintegrated in spirit until she finally resigned herself to residing in a wheelchair, usually sitting in a hall of her care home during the day and in her room at night. My mother passed away from the accumulated ravages of Alzheimer's on February 2, 2007. She was 73. She was never told her daughter had died. My mother was a true contradiction in terms during her life. She could seemingly place one mask over her face in order to display happiness for one group or individual to observe while displaying a completely different facade for another group or individual she did not care for. She was capable of expressing love and real emotion to her children and grandchildren, and at the same time demonstrate utter contempt and indifference to selected others if she felt that she had been wronged. Most of all, though, she was a com- plete human being awash with all the typical human traits and characteristics like outward and inward expressions of love and consideration. When combined with her strengths and weaknesses and those other foibles that made her just like the rest of us, in the end, she was just Mom. Until next month, work safe and smart. ENGINEERING from page 59 WWJ Ed Butts, PE, CPI, is the chief engineer at 4B Engineering & Consulting, Salem, Oregon. He has more than 35 years experience in the water well business, specializing in engineering and business management. He can be reached at epbpe@juno.com. 60 September 2016 WWJ Learn How to Engineer Success for Your Business Engineering Your Business: A series of articles serving as a guide to the groundwater business is a compilation of works from long-time Water Well Journal columnist Ed Butts, PE, CPI. Visit NGWA's Online Bookstore at www.NGWA.org for more information. waterwelljournal.com

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