Dec 28, 2014 3 min read

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Don Dyson, shown in his sister’s Canton Township home, moved Oct. 1 to the Alzheimer’s wing at the Washington County Health Center.

Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter

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Linda Dyson poses with the dog she got to keep her brother, Don, company when he was still living in her Canton Township home.

Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter

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Linda Dyson is alone again, and, to be honest, she has mixed emotions.

“It’s still hard,” Linda sobbed during a telephone interview. “I feel guilty, but I know I did the right thing.”

On Oct. 1, her brother, Don Dyson, moved to the Alzheimer’s wing at the Washington County Health Center. Within two weeks, Linda noticed a difference in his appearance and attitude.

“He seems more comfortable being in the same place with the same people,” the Canton Township woman said. “He looks better. Really, for him it was a good thing. It was like he’s been there forever. In his mind, that’s where he’s been his whole life.”

Don, 56, has Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a form of dementia caused by a lack of vitamin B1. In Don’s case, the illness was caused by his chronic alcohol abuse.

After he was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his home in March 2012, Don spent a few weeks in the hospital, then was tranferred to a nursing home, where he lived until he moved in with Linda in December 2012. She had been his sole caregiver ever since.

Earlier this year, when the daily grind became too much for Linda to handle on her own, Don started spending weekdays at Senior LIFE, and home health care workers would help shower and shave him in the evenings. That worked for several months, until family issues and other problems with Don’s care arose.

“It got to the point he didn’t want to eat, and he started losing weight,” Linda said.

When she learned a room was available at the health center, she agreed it was time for Don to move.

“I feel so bad because a lot of the decision was out anger,” Linda said. “But then I thought, maybe I’m being selfish keeping him here.”

Don enjoys playing table games at the center and watching television. He is eating well, and the dark circles under his eyes are gone. He does complain that he’s beginning to have trouble swallowing, and he still prefers to spend most of his time alone.

Although he politely answered questions during a recent visit by Observer-Reporter staffers, he became a bit fidgety, and it was obvious he wasn’t in the mood for company. He preferred to lie in bed and listen to the soothing Christmas music.

Even Linda visits Don just once a month now. More frequent visits, she discovered, made him nervous.

“Every time I would walk in, he’d say, ‘What are you doing here?'” Linda said.

After spending the last two years immersed in Don’s care, Linda is having more trouble than Don adjusting to the new living arrangements, not to mention her newfound freedom.

“It took a while to sit down and relax,” she said. “If I’m gone a couple hours, I think, ‘I’ve got to get home.’ But I can walk out the door and be gone as long as I want. It’s so nice not to have to hurry and worry. I know he’s in a safe place. He looks healthier and is well taken care of.”

Linda has no regrets, and without hestitation, said she would welcome Don back into her home and care for him.

“Yes, I would do it again, but I hope I never have to,” Linda said. “As bad as it was, I’d do it for him. I would try again. I don’t like being a quitter, but sometimes you have to.”