My most special dream is go once again and take to gondola to the top of the mountain at Banff Alberta and just sit and watch to beauty stretched out below. Then I would take the Gondola back down and go and soak in the sulphur hot springs just below the mountain and let all this hurt and pain be washed away?
I think next summer I may just do that! Just me and my memories of better times!! Maybe by then I will be ready for a trip just for me.
My kids and I have a plan that the first Christmas my husband/their father is gone or doesn't know we are there, we are going to Iceland to see the northern lights.
I always wanted to hike the entire Appalacian Trail,but know my health would not allow it. But I would like to raft the wildest river and feel the water in my face.
pamsc, I have been to Iceland many times...one of the best places to see the northern lights is up in the west fjords...closer to the arctic circle. However, it is brutal up there with very strong winds. You can fly, weather permitting, from Reykjavik to Isafujoudur. The airline to go over on is Icelandair which leaves out of DC...I have flown out of DC, Logan and JFK...Go out of DC. It is about a 6 hour fight and be ready for a bumpy ride near and over Greenland. Happens every time. Incidentally, one of the better months for such a trip to see the northern lights is Feb..or late Jan though this year the lights could be seen very well up through March. When there are the sun flares then the lights are really active. You will see a lot of greens, yellows and some pinks. You might check with Icelandair on their website for tours etc and info on the events. New Year's Eve in Reykjavik is a very big deal with bon fires etc. Lots of celebrating. When you make your air reservations, make sure to check Icelandair first then get your domestic flights to suit that..at least that is what I do. Then make sure you have enough time layover wise in case of bad weather that could cause flight delays. I always hit DC at least one full day before I leave for Iceland and those flights usually depart about 9:30 OM and get in to Keflavik at about 6:30 AM. If you get that flight you well may see the lights enroute..
I won't make any plans to go somewhere when my hubby doesn't know me..I'll be with him...just cuz....and later for Christmas, maybe if our eldest is still in SA I'll head to Cape Town when it will be summer there.
My dream is to do a quilting tour of the states. My friends from here down under did one as a group, they brought me back civil war fabrics, the stories of all the places they visited. the museums, Amish people....then up to Canada! For now I can only dream about it!
This idea is to dream and plan and maybe someday do to! I have been to that very spot in Banff that I dream about and now I am sitting and remembering and planning and dreaming and it is so good for my soul and stress level. We need to dream! It's good for the soul.
Awww, what an uplifting post....I would love to go visit my son and my German family. I am missing out on seeing these sweet little grandbabies. I would like to be "beamed up" without all the TSA rules, without the jet-lag, and without long lines at the airport. I would arrive rested and full of energy to play with the kiddos...spend some time on the North Sea, drink a few German Biers and partake good quality family time. I miss my German family!
Oh how I wish I could just beam you there. You sound so homesick. Close your eyes and try to see them in your mind and maybe that will help. Hug them and kiss them in your dreams!!
Jazzy, wouldn't it be wonderful it would could all be beamed---and think of the savings too...lol....Oh we could also visit our message board friends when their spirits needed a lift.
I would also like to dream that they could find a cure for alzheimers!
It's just wonderful to be able to dream. I wish for the same dream but not just Alzheimer's but all Dementia's. I was afraid to dream or even make a plan for my life but now, just today, I have found that I can dream about my future again and maybe even make a few small plans. Like I want to take a stained glass course again and maybe take yoga, the gentle one. There was a song years back I don't know the name but some of it said" to dream the impossible dream, to right the unbearable wrong " and it was beautiful. Just to dream!!
It was from " man from Lamancha. And and it was called " the impossible dream" I found it on google I just typed in the impossible dream. Take a look at all the lyrics and you will see the dream of every caregiver to some extent. It is beautiful.
I think that is wonderful. Remember, any dream will do! It's a dream, your dream and we as caregivers need to be able to dream? This is fun!! I hope we get lots of dreams shared! Don't you??
Julia, I'd be happy to give you a personal quilting tour of Canada. That would be a dream trip for me, even if I've already been to most of the areas already. One I haven't been to is on Manitoulin Island in Ontario and it is still on my bucket list of places to see. What's interesting is that some of my favorite quilting books come from Australia :-)
bgd, thank you, that would be wonderful. You never know I may get to take you up on that offer one day!. Yes, we have some amazing quilters down under. Too bad we're so far apart, I have a trunk full of Aussie quilt books!
My dream is a trip to Italy with my daughter and her family. I've been there several times, my daughter once, and we both would love to share the experience with the rest of the family. We would stay in Sorrento and travel from there! Maybe Venice, Capri, Milan, Positano, Ravello, who knows? This dream is the only thing that is keeping me going right now. It reminds me that I have to take care of myself, no matter what, so that I can have a life again. Thanks all for sharing your dreams. Pamsc, I'd also love to see the northern lights. I was actually booked on a vacation to Iceland with three girlfriends but unfortunately this disease ended that trip two days before I was supposed to leave. Maybe someday......
London, England September 2014....my best friend (her hubby passed a couple of years ago from cancer) and I are planning this. No tour, just a flight over and have a hotel booked by Hyde Park for 2 weeks and then use public transit to get around. No one telling us where to go on what day and time. Free to do as we want when we want. I've been tied down for too long.
What wonderful plans! My dream to go back to Banff will be the same, not times or schedules just do it!! I think all of the dreams above are just so wonderful. It's a dream that we can just pray will happen, so lets get them out of our hearts and heads and on the screen. Come on gang !! Just dream!! I's so much fun!
When this discussion first started, I thought "I have no more dreams". I really couldn't think of anything. But I've been thinking about it for the last day and I would love one more road trip. Maybe on a motorcycle but I think more practically in a small camper van. I'd like to drive out west and then up the Alaska Highway, visiting friends and family along the way. I'd like to see the polar bears in Churchill, I'd like to see the midnight sun and the Northern Lights. I'd like to take the whole summer and just see where I ended up.
Seems like my dream could be interpreted as wanting freedom.....hmmmm.
I think a dream is something we will have to look forward to when all of this is over. At least that is how I am looking at it. I have to have something for me that I can plan and re plan a thousand times before I actually bring it to reality and go. I am now looking at when I have to move to the city dW will be living in LTC and have decided to try my hand at Tole Painting and stained glass again and have been spending time finding places there were I can take classes. Again these are dreams that I can look forward to again. I will not let this disease drag me down. I have realized that I am not doing anything for me now and that is dangerous for my health, so " a hunting I will go" for things I like to do and I am starting to feel better. My dreams are all I have right now until DW is settled into his new home and life.
What I want to say is that I hope each of you does better with your dream than I have. My husband's decline was so rapid, and the two years, at least before that, were what I call "the lost years". I had dreams, but they go back at least six years, since his dx of ftd. Okay, 12 years if you count the transition.
His death was 13 months ago. Considering his age, and mine, there is no social security, no medicare, just me. In ultimate panic, I took a loan from 401K a couple of years ago. I made other bad decisions and have been audited twice.
Initially following his death, I had a burst of energy. This was followed by an exacerbation of migraines with two courses of steroid therapy- I don't even know what happened during that time; only that I did not sleep and who knows what else?
So, I write this to say, hold on to those dreams. Don't be like me. I wanted to move so much, and I envy Bama and Judith KB who took charge of their lives- at least they are who come to mind. If I keep up with the day to day and fill a dumpster a week that is my only testament to any kind of success.
Like Abby I also hope all of your dreams come true.
For those that don't think that way (like me), it was empowering to realize one day that I was trying to figure out what to do with my life which I have never done because that's not what I want - and instead authorize myself to just be me.
That sounds like you buy a ticket or something (to 'authorize' yourself) but I think it comes from a combination of numerous things you work through with a little luck and some real desire.
My dream has always been the same. Once we knew we had dementia, that the disease not claim both of us. That in due time I go on with a full interest in life, that just like my parents and other close friends dying I come to accept it in time, and with the memory of her in my pocket go on to do some interesting things.
Amber I did go to England this spring for my daughters blessing. I left DH at home with family. My other daughter and get husband traveled with me. We stayed near Hyde park. We had the best time. My dream is to go again and travel to new places like Italy mentioned above. The trip to England was my first trip out of the country. My dream is to take a trip a year and go back to work.
As I read this I realize how fortunate my wife and I were that I retired when I did so we could do a lot of travelling. Without even trying, by the time of our last trip before AD took over we had been to all 7 continents. Our third was Antarctica. We also had a wonderful trip to Iceland. My daughter and her husband went to Alaska in April to see the northern lights and had a great experience.
My day-to-day dream is to go to daily Mass again and hopefully participate in parish life more fully. My long term dream is to someday visit Poland. 2014 will be 100 years since my grandmother left that country as a 17 year old girl. I would really like to see where she was from and just see the beauty of the country. I visited Ellis Island in 1995 which was her port of entry. When I stood in the Great Hall and realized she had been in that space I cried and was thankful for her bravery to come here without any family.
Another dream is to be happy and loving to others again -- this disease is just sucking the life and emotions out of me.
My dream may become a reality (traveling to Germany to see my family)
I won't be beamed up, which I would prefer, but flying the conventional is okay! I checked out a respite yesterday, which I have never used, and believe it will provide me the opportunity. Jazzy you taught me to dream the "impossible dream" God willing, I will see my son and beautiful grandbabies this fall.
Just because we are living this kind of life doesn't mean we can't dream and maybe actually make our dreams come true. I have read many of this groups threads and have learned one important thing and that is to not let this disease take over my life. I have listened and realized that we have to make a separate life as best we can. This also depends on financing and I realize so many of the caregivers in this world get no help and live in poverty while trying to give who ever they are caring for the very best they can. But we can still dream and maybe, just maybe, you never know what will happen, so keep the dream alive.