Easter Traditions and Alzheimer’s disease

Jamál (Beauty), 19 Bahá (Splendor), 169 BE – Sunday, April 8, 2012 about 1:35 PM Pacific Time

Every Easter Mom and I each eat a chocolate Easter bunny. This is a tradition we’ve practiced for at least the last twenty or twenty-five years. Sometime between April 1 and Good Friday, I buy two chocolate Easter bunnies. This year I bought us solid chocolate bunnies instead of hollow bunnies.

After I bought the bunnies, I placed them in the refrigerator. When I buy the hollow bunnies, I place them in the freezer until Easter morning. On Easter Sunday, I make a carafe of fresh coffee and then Mom and I eat the bunnies for either breakfast or lunch. This year we ate them for brunch, with fresh hot coffee.

I opened Mom’s bunny and gave it to her. She looked at the chocolate and asked me “How do I use it?” At that moment, I realized Mom had forgotten our Easter tradition. It was upsetting and I wanted to cry, but instead of crying (Mom wouldn’t have understood why I was crying) I explained to her that she could eat the chocolate bunny.

Mom ate her bunny. During the process, she got chocolate all over herself. She had chocolate on her face, hands, and dress. This is the first year Mom got chocolate all over herself when she ate the bunny. I’m not sure whether Mom got the chocolate all over herself because it was a solid bunny or because of the progression of the Alzheimer’s disease. Perhaps next year I will go back to buying hollow bunnies.