The Most Frustrating and Infuriating Disease in the World

Today dad ran away again. This time was the worst. He snuck out once and I called him back in, then again after we spent two seconds not watching him. I guess it's like having an infant, you look away for two seconds and something can happen. So this time, I drove the normal way I usually drive to find him at the end of the hill. No luck. Then I drove back up, passed my momma on the way, and drove down another hill. Someone told me the other day, always look downhill, they will usually take the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, everything is downhill from our house at the top of the hill, so the options are endless. I finally found him at the bottom on a hill walking towards a convenient store. I parked my car and walked towards him (which was my first mistake). He immediately threw his hands up and yelled "leave me alone, put yourself in my shoes and just let me be!", turned around and walked away, this time uphill. I followed him again, hazards on and let him walk solo for a good ten minutes, then I tried again. Needless to say, I failed on numerous occasions and I finally called my mom to come get him. In this madness, a woman drove up and yelled "Is that Matt?", I told her it was and she began to follow him. So there we are me, my momma, and this woman all trying to get him in the car to no avail. Police were called and when the cop showed up it was a madhouse, my sister drove into the parking lot, the woman was in another, I was in my car and my mom in hers. My mom finally broke, first time I have seen her cry in years, big, heavy, impossible to stop tears. She came up, red eyed and all to the police car and gave the cop my dad's ID. Dad and the cop talked for a while and finally dad agreed to let him follow him home as long as he could still walk. The woman turned out to be someone from the Alzheimer's Association and she knew exactly what to do (she called the cops), as she's done it a hundred times before with hundreds of patients.

We're finally home and the only thing we can do, is sit and steep about what happened, while my dad quietly reads the newspaper in complete oblivion of the mess he ensued in our hearts just minutes ago. I can't go to my parents and say, "lets talk about this, what can we do to make sure this doesn't happen again". There is no point. We just have to internalize it and keep on keeping on. My mom can't go out for a walk by herself or to the Alzheimer's Association to talk about what happened, cause he'll runaway again. That's the frustrating and infurating part of this awful disease.

Do you want to know what set him off? My mom showering. Why? Because that means she is going out, she goes days without bathing in fear that he'll go crazy and leave. That's what I found out today. I'm learning, we all are.