10 July 2019
I’m only posting this, mainly for the benefit of those of you who have met him, but back in May, my father-in-law - Aurel (my daughter named him Relu for short) - aged 99 this October - had a number of mini strokes, leaving him unable to walk, with both aspects of incontinence, and confirmed advanced dementia.
We took action immediately as a state of emergency, and after a brief spell in hospital for diagnosis purposes, we had no option but the heartbreaking decision to sign him into a care home.
We didn’t have much time to select one, but we found a nice place that also specializes in post trauma therapy, both physical and mental.
Of course he reacted badly from being ‘abandoned in a place full of dying people’ as he put it, although it couldn’t be further from the truth...
Worst still, and aided by his dementia, he dreamt up all sorts of nonsense about me being usurped by the mafia and the only reason we ‘committed’ him to this home was to seize his apartment... whatever... so it’s been a pretty tough time of late, especially for my wife Aura. It all happened so quickly too, in just a few weeks he’s gone from a strapping almost upright 99 year old sharp-minded man to a frail and helpless gibbering (at times) bag-o-bones, there’s no other way to describe him.
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I’m sure many members here have had similar trials or worse, so there’s nothing exceptional by this post.
However, we finally convinced him that he could no longer go home (as he was violently insisting) to live alone as he was before the events, and he’s set about cooperating with the staff at the clinic (who are absolute angels) and having a go at some of the available therapy in their gym. He was dismissive of passing a ball from one wheelchaired old fogey to another wheel-chaired old fogey, what good can that do? You can imagine the attitude of a former Government Minister (Agriculture and Forestry) back in the 40s to 70s, when this gent was responsible for the concept and construction of the Transfagarasan and many other tourist roads in Romania, as well as a present day active supporter of several forestry protection groups.
Anyway, it seems to be paying off to an extent, we received this video by WhatsApp today, his first ‘
walk’ in 2 months... he just never gives up...
“Bravo Dl. Ungur” - as the nurse said, yes indeed - well done Mr. Ungur