(This article first appeared in the June print edition of the Hendersonian)
It’s 5:20 am, and my mother, Kimiko, is up for the third time. In the last month and a half, I have not slept through the night because of this glitch of repetition. “When are we leaving?” she asks defiantly. Dementia/Alzheimer’s patients can be obsessed with time and do not like change. I liken this to the need to harness something tangible since her control over memory is starting to flee. She doesn’t remember having previous classes at the YMCA at 8 a.m. We go back and forth this way until she relents, sitting with her coffee in her morning spot on the couch, gazing through the window and trees at the sun’s rising.
Later, we are in the water, and a different side of my mother appears. A lulling tune by Nat King Cole fills the air. Refracted light bounces off the turquoise blue as Kimiko sways in the water, her head moving from side to side, a smile imperceptible at the corners of her mouth. From the back, positioned as I am to watch her and be her caretaker, I finally relax. I realize I don’t remember seeing her dance before. She is moving lyrically and happily in the water. It is a moment of absolute joy, perhaps as pure as the day she was born eighty-seven years ago. Activities like walking, yoga and swimming are beneficial to those with dementia/Alzheimer’s. Combined with a group, the benefits increase. We are here to keep Kimiko active in her life and to navigate those waters—literally and figuratively.
According to healthdata.org, the number of adults (aged 40 years and older) living with dementia/Alzheimer’s worldwide is expected to nearly triple, from an estimated 57 million in 2019 to 153 million in 2050. One in nine people aged 65 or older has Alzheimer’s (10.9% of the population). Two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Many attempt to reduce—and defy—dementia risk through lifestyle factors, such as education, diet and exercise. We are in this class to ensure my mother will not become another statistic.
Water is life and life-giving. It is healing and therapeutic. Eleven women and two men fill the water in this class donning Esther Williams-style bathing caps I’ve gifted them. As a Hollywood costume designer and artist (for 35 years), I find beauty in human beings and daily events that celebrate life. But, at heart, I will always be a girl from Henderson who graduated from County High in 1982. For the past few months and several more, I am happily spending time with my mother, Kimiko, a native of Okinawa. She married my father, a Henderson native, and he brought her here many years ago. I am learning my mother, re-learning my mother and trying to understand this new time in her life.
She is one of my greatest muses. The well is deep.
“The way of water has no beginning and no end. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world…water connects all things. Life to death, darkness to light.” – Avatar
***
Henderson native Ane Crabtree, a 1982 graduate of Henderson County High School, has been a designer in Hollywood for 35 years. She has created looks for shows like “The Sopranos,” “Westworld,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Darren Aronofsky’s Postcards from Earth”—the first film to premiere this year at the Las Vegas Sphere—and the recent, “The Changeling,” for Apple TV. She has also created designs for the futurist Liam Young for shows Planet City and The Great Endeavour for Venice (Italy), Shanghai (China), Saudi Arabia Biennale’s and the NGV Melbourne (Australia).