The Annual Party

Every year this time, John Ascuaga's Nugget (http://www.janugget.com/) hosts a terrific Christmas party for the consumers at WARC.  He is truly a blessing for these special-needs people ... most of whom live in a group home and whose needs are just barely tended to as I have been told. My sister looks forward to this event every year, and it has always been a highlight of her holiday season.  She has always anticipated it weeks in advance, wanted to wear something special, sat with certain friends, and given us a complete report about everything. This year was different.  First off, Lizzie refused to believe the party was today, and then she did not want to wear anything special and argued about it to the point where I simply conceded and let her choose.  Next, I received a phone call (when I was at work) from one of the supervisors at WARC telling me Lizzie was refusing to go to the party by not going and screaming and yelling about it all.  Had I not heard her in the background, I wouldn't have believed it.  "Leave me alone."  "Stop telling me what to do."  "Go away from me."  "Stop following me."  It seems this supervisor was responsible for getting Lizzie and 3 other consumers to the party, and all the others had left the building.  Lizzie was holding these few people back.  I had Lydia put Lizzie on the phone, and I tried reasoning with her to no avail. Finally I just said, "If you go to the party, I will meet you there."  Apparently that worked. When I arrived at the Nugget to check on her, she was sitting in a booth with 3 other supervisors having a grand ol' time and seemed oblivious that I showed up to see how she was doing.  (Another different thing ... she always wanted family and friends to attend this event with her and welcomed us with open arms.)  So once I saw she was OK, I went my own way. Here at home this evening, Lizzie is fine in that she is calm and appears quite content.  Lydia described her day as upside down from the very beginning at WARC ... another flip-flop day ?!?!?