by Ruth Hay
“Can you confirm Hilary’s results from observation?
What else can you do?
What is the likely timeframe for the onset of full dementia?
What do your hospital supervisors say is the next move?
Is there any therapy or medication that can help her at this point?
Have you thought of the impact of this information on the rest of us?
What do we need to do to keep Hilary here, where she is safe and loved?”
Grant and Stuart exchanged a look of sheer amazement. Vilma Smith was smart, elegant, beautiful and for some unbelievable reason living alone with a bunch of women. What was wrong with Canadian men? This woman had missed her calling in life. She should have been a judge, a detective, a hospital administrator or involved in some other highly analytical activity that could utilize her obvious talents.
When they recovered enough to respond, it was to confirm that these questions of Vilma’s were the very ones that had occupied them for weeks and kept them from being honest about their findings.
“So then, what is your considered, professional advice, doctors?”
Vilma had no intention to let these two off the hook. They initiated all this. They identified a problem. They had better be a part of the solution.
Starting now!
To the back of her mind, she firmly pushed the thought of telling Mavis about her dear friend’s diagnosis and the subsequent waves it would create throughout Harmony House.
To their credit, Dr. Ingleby and Dr. Caskie did not shirk the tasks implied by Vilma’s questions.
They began at once to lay out for her the conclusions they had already reached.
Taking turns to explain, they worked their way down a list of strategies.
Stuart: We will try to persuade Hilary to do the retinal scan.
Grant: There is a ten-minute test for cognitive skills. I have taken the course so I can administer it. If we can get everyone in the house to do it, Hilary will not realize she is singled out for special attention.
Stuart: It’s a common diagnostic assessment tool. The questions are not onerous; draw a clock with hands at a certain time, recall a list of five unrelated words, repeat two sentences correctly, identify animals, count backwards from 100, draw a three-dimensional cube. You know the kind of thing.
Stuart: It’s not a conclusive test. Many factors affect performance so we will need to know what medications the subjects are taking.
Grant: Problems like sleep apnea, depression, alcohol excess can have debilitating effects.
Stuart: On the whole, you have a supportive environment here with plenty of stimulation. I could not imagine Hilary succumbing to dementia or Alzheimer’s any time soon.
Vilma’s audible gasp of shock at the word ‘Alzheimer’ startled the men and caused them to stop.
“Please do not be concerned. This is good news. There’s also one more solution we can provide.
A new meaningful kind of talk therapy is available.”
“Grant, I don’t believe a long course of talk therapy will benefit anyone here. It’s much too time consuming and expensive.”
“But, Vilma, this is the opposite. It’s called Single-Session Therapy. A client shows up and talks, learns and leaves, possibly forever, with solutions they can use at once.”
“Are you suggesting sessions like this would help us adjust if Hilary, God Forbid, has, or will have, dementia?”
Stuart saw a sign of positive thinking in Vilma.
“We can set you up with a counseling session to try it out. We could possibly arrange for a clinical psychologist or psychotherapist, trained in this method, to come here.”
Vilma thought Mavis might be the one most affected if Hilary was approaching mental decline. She did not accept Stuart’s offer right away. Therapy was one of the suggestions she would consider later, after the doctors had finished their explanations and advice.
She was not, however, about to let them escape just yet.
“Gentlemen, thank you for clearing the air. We have work to do to restore confidence and clarity to this situation you have created. I advise complete honesty from here on. Do not be surprised if your test group is smaller as a result.
I will help you deal with the fallout regarding Hilary Dempster. Go ahead with your plans, but in a far more open and honest way. Are we agreed?”
Stuart wanted to say “Yes, Ma’am!”
Grant wanted to give her a big hug.
Neither one followed their first impulse fearing they would only make matters worse.
It was time to depart and get that drink they planned, now richly deserved.
It was a subdued pair who went upstairs to their room. They knew they had dodged a bullet.
Vilma Smith could have reported them to the hospital authorities.
Lesson learned.
Stuart was grateful his mother would never know about their behaviour. ‘When in doubt, tell the truth’ was one of her mottoes, drummed into his head as a child. A wave of shame swept over him. There was a long way back to restore the trust of Vilma Smith. There was always the threat that she might set her dogs on them if they failed to meet her expectations.
Stuart did not think this last threat was impossible.
Even Grant was quieter than usual. He shouldered much of the blame for the stupid decisions. He knew it would take more than a musical soiree to repair the mistakes. At least they had a strong advocate on their side. As long as they did not disappoint Vilma Smith again, they had a hope of making their original plan succeed.
Chapter 19
Vilma knew if she delayed too long she would not be able to summon the courage to tell Mavis what she learned from the doctors.
After a mostly sleepless and restless night, when even the dogs deserted her bed, she got up early, took the dogs for a run in the woods and breathed strength and resolve into her lungs with the crisp morning air.
She did not have to wait long for Mavis to find her. Vilma was drying the dogs’ feet on the porch, when Mavis arrived there.
“I couldn’t wait any longer. I glimpsed the doctors heading upstairs last evening and I thought they were like chastened dogs with their tails down. Am I right?”
Vilma laughed. It was a strangled kind of laugh but it was something of a relief.
“Mavis, can we go to your room? I’ll settle the dogs in their cage for a sleep. All three of us had a restless night, I’m afraid. I’ll join you in a few minutes when I’ve changed my wet shoes.”
“Of course, I’ll start the coffee. Bailey’s in yours?”
“Please!”
It was not an easy session, but Vilma soon discovered that the news about Hilary was not entirely unexpected for Mavis. Over many months, she had seen signs of decreased mental acuity in her friend, followed by periods of normality, which made her hopeful she was mistaken in her fears.
“I do know something of this kind of slow deterioration, Vilma. Sadly, it is a path I saw my dear mother take in her latter years. I have always been so grateful she died of natural causes and did not descend into the hell of Alzheimer’s disease.”
“I am so sorry to hear that, Mavis, but glad your mother was spared.”
Mavis breathed out. It was a relief in a way to be able to talk about this with someone. She continued with more energy and determination. This part she decided on long ago.
“Let me make this clear. Whatever happens from here on to Hilary Dempster, there is no question of her ever leaving Harmony House for some locked establishment where she will linger and die alone.
I will look after her. It is a promise we made to each other before we entered into the project of co-housing, and I will keep my word to her as she would have to me, were the situation reversed.”
Vilma’s heart contracted. A friendship such as this between two women was something she had never known. Women distrusted Vilma because of her outer appearance. They assumed she had as much male admiration as she could ever need, so
female companionship was superfluous. Less attractive women who would have made great friends, avoided her, fearing they would be the ’second fiddle’ in the relationship, the one who gets the leftovers once Vilma had rejected another suitor.
It was a pattern Vilma observed happening around her all through her life. Men were attracted to her. Women were repelled……… or jealous, or fearful.
Her stepdaughters followed the same pattern. They hated her on sight and it was not only because she had ‘stolen’ their father from them. Nothing she could do, convinced them she wanted their father’s happiness even more than the girls did. The tragedy was, that Nolan would have given his life for Vilma. He would have been the willing nurse she needed, if necessary. Instead, she performed that service for him. She did it gladly, with love, all the while knowing that with his departure no one was left, in all the wide world, to care for her in her old age. It was the only thing his money could not supply for her.
Harmony House was the nearest thing to a family Vilma Smith found, and it was the saving of her.
When her romance with Andy Patterson disintegrated, she knew she could fall back on the sympathy and understanding of these women.
Jannice O’Connor was like the daughter she never had.
Mavis and Hilary were like the kind of older aunts you love to visit as a child.
Eve was a sweet, damaged woman whose creativity emerged in the encouraging atmosphere of the house and saved her from despair.
Honor was an independent loner with a past life that bounced up and accosted her in the form of Faith. The entire household combined to help Honor cope. It was the way of things in Harmony House and nothing would ever sever those bonds.
If Vilma Smith were to be struck down by a heart seizure, at this very moment, she had the confidence that she would be cared for and loved by these women. She knew this, because she had seen it with Eve’s last illness.
They would work together to save Hilary in any way modern medicine could provide and if the worst happened, they would work together to make her last moments peaceful and serene.
Vilma would allow the doctors to redeem themselves by telling the truth to their ‘clients’. Those women who wanted to continue the experiments could do so.
Mavis and Vilma would protect Hilary and ensure she had only the information she could cope with. Mavis was already indicating that Hilary was more self-aware than most and would respond well to their care. It was likely she would welcome research into her condition and accept any therapies or medications science could provide.
There was always the chance Hilary would outlive her diagnosis before it became too onerous.
* * *
Mavis and Vilma refilled their coffee mugs and added more Bailey’s Cream Liqueur. They clinked their cups together and smiled, in the sure and comforting understanding that no one at Harmony House would ever be alone.
Chapter 20
As the court date for Tyrone’s custody case drew nearer, Dennis Ridley and Shania held counsels of war in their backyard.
Louise saw them from the kitchen windows and smiled to see how Shania had made a friend of Dennis and he, who had never before taken on a father’s role, responded by being a good friend to Shania.
These days, Louise was the mother to the two young ones that she always wanted to be. She was more than content with that role. Shania was full grown and independent now although she kept a close eye on her siblings, a pattern long established in her life.
Things were settled and happy and moving along at a steady pace and Louise Ridley could not be happier.
When she allowed herself a mere moment of retrospection, she could scarcely believe how different her life was now, to those awful periods of turmoil when she doubted her own sanity, and doubted her Dennis, and doubted everything around her. There was no question in her mind that her present happiness was all the sweeter for the difficult times that went before.
And, now, at this moment, before her very eyes, was evidence of how well things could work out with patience and love, and help from Harmony House.
Just knowing those amazing women were next door was the answer to any fears that dared to slip through her happiness barrier and haunt her briefly in the dark of night.
* * *
“So, Mom, does not know anything?”
“I am keeping it all away from her by checking all emails and postal deliveries. I collect the mail from the box on my way home so I can extract anything that looks like official notifications.”
“Good. I consulted my most trusted professor at school and asked him about the case. He agrees it should be thrown out of court but due process has to be followed once it’s in motion.”
“My lawyer is an experienced advocate for minor children. I believe once he gets to court, the judge will understand the facts as presented, and the actual source of such compelling evidence need not be pursued in detail. The applicant will not press his case once he hears what we have against him and his pretend wife.”
“That is exactly what I am praying for. Thank you, Dad.
Do you think Mom can be kept from ever knowing about the threat to Tyrone?”
“I don’t see why not. She is totally centred on family life. She doesn’t even read the newspapers these days. Did you know Louise volunteers at the school to make sure the kids are not bullied in the schoolyard?”
“I can believe it! She’s like a mother bear in defence of her cubs!”
“That’s who you are also, Shania. I am incredibly proud of you.”
“Me, a mother bear? That’s a description I never expected to hear!”
* * *
Louise heard the sound of laughter emanating from the backyard and smiled at the lovely, jolly picture of father and daughter that these two presented.
She tapped on the window to tell them supper was ready, and was rewarded with a wave and a smile as Dennis helped Shania up from the swing seat under the shade of the tree.
Vilma could not get the situation with Hilary out of her mind. She knew Mavis was her ally and would keep her in touch with any developments, good or bad. She knew the doctors were entirely on board and fulfilling their every promise. She knew this because she insisted on regular updates and kept them honest by participating fully in the retinal scans and the mental acuity tests and everything else they deemed necessary to their project’s success.
Perhaps it was her fixation with all of this worrying background stuff that caused her to have a dream of escaping from it all and lying on a beach with nothing to do, other than to sip on an exotic drink.
During the dream, she recognized the beach at the Jamaican resort. It was a holiday option she studiously avoided, ever since her last trip there with Andy. She rented out her designated weeks, banked the money, and rarely gave it a thought.
Until now.
Suddenly, she could feel the soft breeze from the sea, and hear the sound of the oil drum band in the distance and smell the food cooking on the grill. An overwhelming urge to be there, carefree and relaxed, wakened her from her dream and she knew it was time to return to that secluded paradise by the Caribbean Sea.
The only problems were: When? With whom? And most important, who would look after the dogs?
The first of these was easy. She could exchange her weeks with any other available vacant week.
The second would require serious thought.
The third was an absolute impossibility. She dropped the whole idea, delegating it to the category of a nice dream and nothing more.
Mavis took all the help she could get from Grant. She figured he owed it to her for giving her so much more to do inside the house now that she was on a self-imposed, twenty-four-seven watch over Hilary.
She set him the task of maintaining the composting bins. This involved collecting all the garden cuttings and hauling them to the bins, then adding layers of grass clippings and soil to encourage decomposition into fertilizer. Regular turning over of the bin contents was requir
ed. She kept an eye on him from the kitchen windows and thought he was actually enjoying the physical work. He certainly wielded the shovel with enthusiasm.
She might get him to dig out that bed at the back of the garden that now got so little sun. Once stripped down, she could plant shade-loving plants and bushes for next year. Or else, Grant could plant them.
Served him right!
In her calmer moments, she realized this was not entirely fair. She was blaming Grant for the fact of her worry and concern about Hilary.
It did not change the situation. Hilary’s deterioration was real enough.
It was just that if she did not know there was evidence to prove it, she could still be living in ignorance and making excuses for anything disturbing she might notice. Was that not what she had been doing for some time?
These days she dedicated several hours a day specifically to Hilary. She took her for outings in her car since Hilary now expressed a dislike of driving. She took her for grocery shopping in the Byron Metro store and they would stop for a coffee and donut afterwards as a reward.
On fine days, they went for a stroll in Springbank Park and sat by the river admiring the ducks and geese and the occasional boat from the canoeing club.
The entire time, Mavis was talking and encouraging Hilary to remember the names of objects, such as flowers, or birds, or grocery items, or donuts. Whatever else presented itself to them was fodder for this pleasant exercise.
She spoke about times in their lives from earlier years and she was greatly relieved when Hilary recalled most names and dates with remarkable clarity. The past was much easier for her to talk about than what happened at Harmony House the day before.
She accompanied Hilary to the appointments the young doctors set up and although she questioned Hilary about the tests, she did not seem to think there was anything notable about what she was asked to do. The results would be shared with her in due course. She did not want to rush that step.
