I find myself reflecting on the past year and how it went for the Olivers.

In a lot of ways, 2025 was a challenge. After a while, I started calling it “2025: The year that keeps on giving.” This would elicit a chuckle or two from my friends who knew exactly what I meant.

For Tony, at least, the year that started out rocky has ended positively.

Nine days into 2025, my dear husband, who has been dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s disease for a decade, took a trip to the hospital by ambulance. He fell the bathroom and hit his head on the tile floor. It was a white-knuckle experience for me, since his pulse rate became perilously low.

As it turns out, this all was an extension of the challenges he was having in 2024. It wasn’t until I started working with a dementia doctor online through the Medicare GUIDE program that we were able to figure out that Tony had been dealing with pain. So, all the aggression, all the feistiness, was pain related. Once we got his pain under control, he improved tremendously.

I also learned that he was underweight. It easily could have been chalked up to “disease progression,” as his aggression had been, but once I added calories to his day, he began to gain back his weight. An emphasis on getting him more liquids and keeping him properly hydrated has helped, too.

That’s not to say that his disease has halted. Unfortunately, it continues its relentless journey. He now has myoclonic seizures, which are evidence of the damage being done to his brain. He’s medicated for that, and they’re under control for the most part.

Overall, though, I have the mostly happy, sometimes silly Tony back. One day he even spontaneously kissed me on the top of my head. He hasn’t done that in years, but it still made my heart melt.

I wish I could say the year went as well for me. I’m calling it my “year of unintended consequences.” In trying to fix one problem, I created a bunch more.

I took a nasty tumble at the end of the driveway in mid-January. My foot got snagged on some landscape netting and I fell on my right hip. Somehow, I managed to get back into the house before I knew just how badly I had messed myself up.

Little did I realize that I’d still be dealing with those lower body problems even now. Months of trips to the chiropractor haven’t really fixed it. An attempt at massage to ease some of the tight muscles only triggered my old neuropathy problem.

When I told my oncologist about it, he suggested that maybe my medication for breast cancer might have something to do with the muscle pain. So, I stopped taking it. That wasn’t it, either. But going off the medication allowed a different problem to resurface.

Then there was the cancer scare I had in February after my annual mammogram. That required another biopsy after new calcifications were detected. Happily, those turned out to be benign, but it was par for the course for 2025.

There were blood tests, four MRIs, two biopsies and one surgery. I’m cancer free, but still in a bit of pain when I walk. I guess it could be worse. Who knows what 2026 will bring?

At some point, it all became kind of laughable. On the house front, the year began with a fairly significant plumbing issue. That seemed to be the beginning of a series of big-ticket items that decided to stop functioning: the washing machine, the water heater, the TV (which literally died the night before the new one was picked up) and the microwave. It really was the year that kept on giving.

I did, however, manage to get one project completed that goes squarely into the win column. I finally had the flooring in the hallway and kitchen replaced. Tony and I had meant to do it for years, but other things came up. When it truly was becoming a trip hazard, it had to be addressed. It’s a lot safer now, and it looks so much better. That’s a gift that keeps on giving too, but in such a happy way.

Best of all, Tony and I celebrated our 30^th anniversary. I’m so happy that he’s still with me and that I remain his Mrs. Oliver. Alzheimer’s disease can’t take that away from us.

No doubt 2026 will have its own challenges, but if 2025 taught me anything, it was that a sense of humor goes a long way, as well as a bit of stubborn determination.

Happily, I have both. Here’s hoping you do too.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.