[Dueller]

My dad died October 22 as a result of complications from alzheimers, pneumonia and a broken hip. He was 82. He was a career Army NCO. After retiring from the military he worked in sales with Metropolitan Life and ultimately took over my mother's family farm to raise cattle. About 3 years ago he began to slow down and had to sell off his cows but still lived on the farm.

My brother and I did not realize the extent of his Alzheimers because mom did such a good job of covering it up. On July 4th my mother had to be hospitalized due to a colon b;ockage. She was in for 14 days and I returned to stay with my dad while she was in hospital. I took him to visit her every day where he sat with her for 10-12 hrs a day. It quickly became apparent his mental/neurological health was failing. Ultimately he had to be hospitalized in a geri psyche hospital to get him stabilized.

Mom was released from hospital and had to go into a rehab facility to regain her physical strength. Once dad was stabilized he had to be moved to a alzheimers memory care facility. Mom was released from rehab and moved to a retirement apartment near dad's facility. Dad was always an outdoor person an he figure out a way to "escape" the facility and slipped unsupervised into a garden area. There he fell and broke his hip on september 19th.

He was hospitalize for partial hip replacement (ball only on femur since socket not damaged). Released and admitted to same rehab my mom was in earlier. Tried his damndest in PT but hip jumped out of socket 4 times. So back to hospital he went for full hip replacement. The back to rehab facility again. Infection set in on hip wound. Developed into pneumonia anf he ultimately was so drained he passed. We were able to get him on jhospice which was a wonderful experience for both him and my family. Very peaceful and calm....he died with my mother, brother and I holding him.