About My Summer Vacation

In late 2012, during a phone conversation with Mom, I noticed that she asked me a question that I had already answered about 20 minutes earlier. Later, when she asked me a third time, I just assumed she was very concerned about the issue (which I can't remember now). During my next phone call, there was another question that she repeated about every 20 minutes or so. By the next phone call I was wondering if she would do it again; she did. I immediately called my brother and he told me she had been diagnosed with dementia a year earlier and was on medication to slow down the progress. During my next visit home I went to a doctor's appointment with Mom, talked to my brother and father, and spent a lot of time observing her. To make a long story short, yes, she had dementia; it was also apparent that Dad would need help caring for her in a couple of years.

Fast forward to fall 2013. An administrator who had heard about my situation suggested I submit paperwork under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in order to have more flexibility to go back and help Mom and Dad more frequently and to also use leave without pay to do so. My request was approved and the 3 or 4 trips per year began. On my return from the trips friends and co-workers would ask about how things went and thus started a series of e-mails that reminded me of the "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" assignments at the start of the new school year when I was first learning how to write. One thing led to another and here we are! I've been asked to repost everything I sent earlier, so I will begin by catching up.