When Joyce was in the hospital in Saint Louis, my daughter and I went there and got a motel near the hospital so we could see Joyce every day. The Hilton motel was perhaps 3 blocks away from the hospital. One night the streets were blocked off for a midnight bicycle race around the area. We decided to walk over to the motel. A security guard there at the door said not to walk there because after dark the local gangs would be out in force and they wouldn’t hesitate to rob and kill you. We went back to the 10th floor of the hospital and slept in chairs for a very uncomfortable night.
Every day we would ask her doctors if Joyce would be okay? Their answers were all the same, “we won’t know for another 3 days or so.” The hospital care in Saint Louis was very good and after several weeks Joyce was transferred to Cox Hospital in south Springfield for recuperation. I was there every day and night. The days were painful, Joyce was like a baby and she had to learn how to talk and how to coordinate her every movement.
Joyce was finally released when she could walk with help and could talk. I was driving her home when the hallucinations began. She kept her head down because she was seeing 8 lanes of traffic coming straight at us. That scared me out of my wits.
I drove to our apartment and Joyce asked me where we were. I told her we were at our apartment. She said, ”No this is not our apartment.” Joyce could barely use her walker to get to our door. Inside, I sat her down on our couch. She looked at the opposite wall and asked me when I put the big picture window in? She said she could see the outside hallway and the apartment across the hall. I had to cook for her, take her to the bathroom using a gait belt for every step everywhere we went.
We finally got through that and we had another 3 years before she passed away. That was the saddest day of my life. I still miss her and talk to her every day, but she hasn’t yet answered.
One night a year and a half ago, I woke up in the dark and looked around the room. As I was getting up when I turned my head and saw Joyce standing in the dark of the bedroom. She was in what I call a holographic form. She stood there for a few seconds and then turned away and vanished. It can’t get any stranger than that!
