April 14 - Weekdays with Richard

Sarah called her visits to her grandfather her "Weekdays with Richard", and she usually saw him two or three times a week. Not that he remembered: He'd been diagnosed with Alzheimer's more than five years ago.

Some days were better than others, but most of her visits were Job like exercises in patience and frustration with occasional moments of brightness and hope, kind of like being a die hard fan of a once solid team that now only succeeded in stringing you along by your memories and breaking your heart week after week.

Nevertheless, she kept going to see him simply because, well, he was her grandfather and the only grandparent she had left. And it wasn't like their visits were wholly unpleasant. For one thing, she knew they had to be good for her grandfather on some level. For another, as an aspiring but thus far roundly ignored stand-up comedian, they were good for her because they made her feel like she was having an impact on somebody somewhere--even though she was pretty sure that impact was generally forgotten by the time she'd gotten back to her car.

About a week before an engagement she'd landed at an open mic night, she decided she would try something new. She would test her new comedy material out on her grandfather. To put it bluntly, it was much racier than their normal conversations, but she figured what was the harm? If he laughed, great. If not, whatever. And if it made him angry, he would probably forget it all by the next time they saw each other anyway.

And so she did it, and it was terrifying at first--getting in front of her grandfather and talking about oral sex and pot and being on her period and every other taboo subject imaginable--but as it went on the terror gradually gave way to exhilaration because some of her material was getting laughs. Not all of it, but definitely some of it. In fact, she hadn't seen her grandfather laugh like that in years.

After her routine, they went out for coffee, and when they got back to his room she made some adjustments to her routine and tried it again, killing where she'd killed before and getting more laughs from the parts she'd adjusted. Part of her felt guilty for effectively giving her one man audience the same show twice, but then a bigger part of her reasoned that if he could enjoy the same routine twice with fresh ears, then it was silly for her to feel guilty about it, even though she still kind of did--But not guilty enough to keep her from tweaking it a bit and doing it again two more times the next day, getting a better response each time.

By the time her open mic night gig came, she had her routine down and gave the best performance of her career, which inspired her to write some new material, which she tried out and honed to perfection with her test audience.

After a few weeks of this, Sarah ran into her grandfather's doctor, Dr. Monroe, as she was leaving the assisted living center.

"Sarah, I don't know what you guys have been doing lately, but Richard really seems to be in good spirits these days."
"Really?"
"Yeah, every time I check in on him he just seems really happy. Quick with a laugh. The nurses say the same thing."

"Wow, that's. That's great to hear. Has he said anything about, like, why he's in such a good mood?"

"Well, we ask him that, but he doesn't really say much of anything. Sometimes he'll just say it's a nice day, but after that, no, not really."

"Has he mentioned anything about--um--wow. This is a little embarrassing, but these last few weeks, I've--OK, so I'm trying to be a comedian, and . . ." And she told Dr. Monroe about her recent string of multiple stand-up engagements in her grandfather's room.

"Has he said anything about that?"

"No, I'm afraid not. Any time I see him after you were just there, I ask him how his visit went, but he--well, you know about his condition. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but if it makes you feel any better, whatever it is you're doing in there seems to be having a positive effect on his overall emotional state."

"Even though he doesn't actually remember it."

"That's right."

"So, basically, after I visit him he's in a good mood, but he doesn't know why."

"Basically, yes. Actually, there have been some studies on this recently, and your grandfather's experience seems to gibe with what a lot of the research says."

"Which is?"

"Well, basically, that a lot of times with Alzheimer's patients, certain emotions will persist even after memories have faded. Like, if they experience something sad, they'll often go on being sad even after they've forgotten what it was that made them sad. By the same token, if something makes them happy, they'll keep on being happy even though they don't know why they're happy. They may not even be actively aware that they are happy. They're just in a good mood. I'm guessing your grandfather must enjoy your comedy routines?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah. Well, that would make sense, because he goes on being in a good mood for a while after you've gone home."

Sarah didn't know what to say.

"This is going to seem totally random, but would you be interested in a bigger audience?"

"What do you mean?"
"There are a lot of residents here with Alzheimer's that don't get many visitors. Maybe if they got a laugh every once in a while it would do them some good."
"That seems--I don't know."
"No, I know. We would have to get approval, and I would need to run it past some people here, but I don't think it would be a major problem. Actually, I think it could be really good for a lot of people here. If you would be interested."
After some deliberation she decided she was. And after running it through the proper channels at the center, Sarah was given a weekly comedy engagement at her grandfather's assisted living center. It was there that she tried out new material and worked on it until she was happy with it, and she kept the engagement even as she started getting paying gigs. The residents there were a great audience, and they never failed to surprise her by laughing the hardest at her dirtiest jokes. When she finished, they always thanked her graciously and told her to come again soon. The details of her visits faded from their memories almost immediately, but they always left the residents in good spirits.
As for Sarah's visits with her grandfather--her weekdays with Richard--they continued. And the more often she went, the better his mood seemed to be. Dr. Monroe theorized that the more frequent her visits, the more likely there was to be a carry over effect. And it was impossible to prove it with only one test subject, but in the case of Sarah's grandfather, laughter seemed to be a pretty good medicine.