I have to echo all with my regrets for your loss. I also have to echo Diane and ceterum, to also query the Antique forum. I know it sounds kind of scary at first with all of the long names but people will be gentle with you and they are not hard to come by at all by mail order from reputable places. The reason you may be more pleased with old garden roses is that often they have more disease resistance, more and more of us don't spray due to the environment, but honestly speaking who has the time and dedication? This might also be why the ones you lost didn't fare well. I particularly like the 'found' roses with names of who found them or where they were found. Some may only bloom once which isn't bad, but for your application you may want to make sure that they bloom throughout your season. I finally dove into them this last year and am very excited about how they will look and do, you sound like it wouldn't take too much for you to become just as excited if only you had better guidance (and enabling, you've come to the right place for that!) than what's at the local big box or nursery. Although you've described your needs pretty well, you might want to think about colors before you start studying what to get. If I may suggest, you might want to focus on bold (but not overly gaudy) colors. I especially like yellow as an accent, it is such a happy color to me and that's what you'll want to feel in the spot, not that she's gone of course, but all the happy memories of times shared. Too many pale colors would just get me down, I know, and that's where you want to go to get away from such a mood. You might also want to include her favorite color as a main color or accent depending on what it is. If she liked white or pale pink, just pair it with a saturated dark pink or the lovely purple clematis above. Best of luck and don't be afraid to really dig in and ask more questions here, we really thrive on wonderful projects like yours. Kerin

I definitely agree with fairgold, agnes & Connie. The first time I even heard the word dementia was when when my Mother had to be hospitalized with a bladder infection & very high fever. I hear this is a very common way that people find out that their LO may be in the early AD stages. If it is the start of Alzheimer's I would also agree that getting her started on medications to help like Aricept, or Exelon, plus Namenda. In my mom's case they helped her to stablize and plateau for a very long time. Eventually the effectivenes decreases, but it is time well worth spent to keep them from advancing faster, than without these meds. jmho & experience I would definitely oversee her monitoring & insulin injections. You may have to take over for her if her memory is starting to be affected. Before we realized my mom was in the early stages of AD, she nearly overdosed herself on a medication that we believe she took twice because she forgot that she had already taken it. By the time my Dad got her to the ER, she was only minutes from having to have a traceotomy (sp?) because her throat & tongue swelled up. Best of Luck! Blessings ~~ katclaws

If you do decide to go through some sort of memory recovery process, be aware that it is remarkably easy to create memories which you then believe are 100% true. You can do it yourself, as can someone who is guiding you through the process. For example, Elizabeth Loftus, a prominent researcher in the area of memory, once did an experiment with some of her college students for them to try to create a memory in the minds of their younger siblings. (Questionable morality, yes, but very interesting.) The college student would start by describing a story that never happened. "Remember when you got lost at the mall?" Over a period of a couple weeks, the college student would add more detail to the never-happened story. "Remember - you were wearing that green plaid shirt." After a couple weeks, the younger children not only believed that the never-happened story had happened, they created their own embellishments to the story. "Oh, yeah, I remember that Mom finally found me in front of the Gap. It was Christmas time - I remember the Santa Claus decorations." This is exactly the sort of thing that ended up getting all sorts of people arrested and jailed (or merely accused and lives ruined) for stuff they never did. Having done a lot of research in this area because of my line of work, I know that I would never trust "recovered" memories that weren't verifiable from other sources. After a brief but sad heyday in the late 80's through mid 90's, most, if not all, courts in the U.S. now dismiss the idea of recovered memories as junk science, and it's not permitted in court. Personally, I think that what you describe is just how memory works. It's not like a tape recording at all. It's just a series of impressions, some of which come to mind at any given time, some of which don't. I think you probably have the answer already - you were really into sports, and the other stuff that was happening didn't make much of an impression. I don't feel like I have memory problems, but I don't remember many details about my school days. Part of that is because I've always lived in my own mind, and just don't notice the stuff that happens around me.

Frieda, I have been giving much thought to why Howard's "Before the Sun Goes Down" had in my youth, and still does in my latter years, makes such an impression when I read it. I had attributed it to my being young and impressionable, but I now realize that is not a sufficient explanation for my present enjoyment when I read even a small portion of the story. On further reflection, I then supposed that it must be the manner in which Howard writes. Her sentence structure is what my old English teacher would describe as "long and envolved". I would add that it is also "rich in description". I suspect that there is something about her manner of writing that somehow matches my thought processes. I wonder if we readers find that our favourite author's writings tend to match out ways of thinking? A few weeks ago, I finished a supposedly thriller called "The Pelican Brief", and I cannot remember the author. I do know that his writing style tended to shorter descriptive sentences, and short chapters. It was also had s quite convoluted story line. I had a very difficult time finishing it. I would find myself putting it back down after only ten minutes of reading, and then starting again after an hour or so. From now on, I am going to pay more attention to the books I like and dislike, to see if this theory holds up in practice. Happy New Year, and it is good to see you back. Bob