I have been an artist all of my life, communicating through a visual medium with little need for the written form, my art can be viewed at http://www.tywilson.com. While I am a voracious reader and admirer of many authors it has never been a vehicle of personal expression except for my journals until now.

My mother was hospitalized in early January 2010 after she was discovered on her bathroom floor, naked and delirious. It was determined that she had been there for three days, how and why she fell and could not get up is still a mystery to this day. While in the hospital a neurologist diagnosed her with first stage dementia and Alzheimer’s.

With her diagnosis it was determined that she could no longer live alone so I made the decision to leave my life in the midwest to join her in hers on the east coast.

I have been a jounal-er for most of my life, having started my first “diary” at the age of ten after reading “The diary of Anne Frank” in the fifth grade. I started writing about my hopes and fears, loves and longing. As I got older the diaries became journals but the result is the same. My writing is a way for me to make sense of my world, sometimes writing helps me to solve a problem, or it can bear witness to important events and sometimes it’s just that place I go for solace.

Knowing that my mother’s disease is progressive I thought it would be a good idea to write about the experience from it’s early stages until that time when I or my brother can no longer take care of her. All too soon these early days when she is still high functioning will be forgotten and all that will be left is whoever she will become after the disease takes its toll.

The title of the blog, “Can you come here for a minute” is one of my mother’s favorite expressions-and one that is guaranteed to have you getting/doing/answering something for her. “Miss Cathy” is the beloved name that friends in my youth and others throughout my life have called my mother, so I affectionately refer to her thus throughout this journey.

So, here I am, blogging for the first time, using this as the vehicle to chronicle this journey that many are on and many have travelled. While I do not know what will happen I do know that I can document events as honestly and accurately as possible, sharing my experience in the hope that it helps others and I in turn can be helped by their support.