Absolutely Amazing Airline and Airport Adventures with Alzheimer's

Well, well, well. Absolutely unbelievable.

I don't know for how many weeks now, I've been reminding my mother about her upcoming trip to the U.S. to visit her favorite daughter. After I wrote it down and started pointing to it every day while talking about it, eventually she got it. She was going for a week to the U.S.

I booked a flight with Air Canada. I told them about her condition, asking if this was acceptable. I had to phone, then go back to the internet to make the booking due to the considerably cheaper web rate, then phone them back to get the note added - they could only add the note after the reservation was made, of course.

I think I was looking forward to my mom's trip even more than she was. A whole week where I wouldn't have to think about her at all. Imagine the freedom.

Now I wasn't exactly sure that this flying alone business was going to work out. But I think some things there's only one way to find out. So, off we went. I couldn't go back to sleep after I woke up around 2 a.m. I woke my mother up at 4:30 a.m., got her showered, dressed, final packing, and off we went. Arriving 90 minutes early at the airport, just like they recommend when flying to the U.S.

I told them again at the check-in counter about my mother's condition, and told them she'd need help with her suitcase - they make you lug that thing around through the customs lineup and then the security lineup, and they won't let me accompany her past this check-in point (I had brought along a doctor's note, in case that might help). She asked us to wait on the side "until there was less of a line-up". My mother asked how long (alzheimer's people can be perfectly logical sometimes). She said 15 minutes. Now, we're waiting there from 5:30 a.m. to 6:15 a.m., watching the line-up getting longer and longer. I'm thinking "how exactly does she expect the line-up to get shorter when it's like prime time for flying". So, finally I go up, and say "the suitcase is on wheels, so I think my mom might be able to drag it." I was getting a little restless.

In the end, she did accompany my mom (the line-up did actualy die down). And I waited for her flight to leave. First they changed it from 6:55 to 7:00 - I thought why would you even bother for 5 minutes, something must be up. I was told, oh just backed-up traffic. When they changed it to 7:30, I called my sister at the other end. Her husband had already left for the airport at 6:15, I suspect hoping to avoid the dreadful Boston rush-hour traffic at least one way.

Finally, the woman behind the desk called me over to inform me that the flight had been cancelled (due to multiple mechanical failures on the plane, including one that said "passenger damaged the door" - I was curious, of course, if that could have anything to do with my mother - she said it might be due to a passenger on a wheelchair, which seems likely - though she also said we probably would never find out the real story).

She told me I could meet my mom downstairs after she clears Canada Customs - since she had already cleared American Customs, they couldn't let you back into the country now without going thru customs now, could they? She said my mom would be accompanied - while I had been waiting, she had called the back room a few times to check on the status of the woman with Alzheimer's. I was to meet her at Arrivals, go to this place for the luggage, and then the opposite end of the airport to line-up at the ticket counter to change my ticket. Since she was standing 3 inches from a keyboard, I asked her if she couldn't just re-book me here. Which she did.

So, I get downstairs, thinking my mom is accompanied. Well, only a security guard is sitting at arrivals, and I can see my mom's suitcase on a stopped belt nearby. I ask the guard regarding this accompanied woman with Alzheimer's, wearing a bright orange jacket. No idea. So, I go to the Baggage Desk, the Info counter (to have her paged), get sent back to the Baggage Desk (no go again). Then I decide to walk down to the ticket counter. And half way there I run into my mother - all by herself, looking like a lost puppy, holding out her E-ticket - she says to me "I have to go to the 2nd floor" (even THAT information they gave her was incorrect).

So, now I'm a little irked - that they let her wander on her own after giving me all kinds of assurances about her being accompanied. I take the suitcase and my mom back to the 2nd floor to give the lady an update on the situation - I was not impressed. Well, the desk upstairs is closed by now. No sign of anyone. I'm told someone MAY be back in a few minutes. So, then I drag suitcase and mother to the ground floor check-in counter, and after lining up in only 2 lines, I explain the situation calmly and say "I knew that at some point it would not be safe for my mom to travel alone, and this situation tells me that that time is here." So, I got my refund.

Now I have to figure out what to do with my mother. I have no sitters arranged for her for the next week. And she keeps asking what time we're going to get to my sister's today because she hasn't understood that I'm now trying to come up with plan B.

Hmmm. It's enough to make you want to check her into the closest nursing home. Almost.