Sometimes I wish I couldn’t remember too…
I was reading at StuntMother this morning, trying to help out with a pesky plant problem, when I stumbled across a very familiar pain. The pain of losing someone close to you when they don’t even know they are going away.
Alzheimer’s and dementia are possibly the worst way to lose someone. They both run rampant in my father’s family, and I know that someday, it will happen to my father as well. The thought of having to go through that again is unbearable. I watched as my grandmother, my grandfather, and my great-aunt progressed (or regressed, as it were) for several years. It is really hard to explain to a child why their grandparents no longer know them. Even as a teenager, it didn’t make much sense to me. But there they went.
This is all I can stand to say right now. I may have to revisit this topic again in the future, now that I realize how much it means to me. It’s strange how we can repress things to the point of not even recognizing them as important. Until this morning, I had not thought much about this issue in several years. I will probably not forget about it for a while now.
Here’s to you Dad. While you are still here.
September 4, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I just spent the past week with my dad and wonder whether he’s starting to fade. His father had Alzheimers and my dad just seems to be forgetting things a lot. Mostly places and events, sometimes people; he frightened my mom by forgetting (briefly?) that my grandfather lived with them for seven years (grandad died in 2002).
He glosses over the forgetfulness pretty easily, so we have been letting it slide. I just don’t know if we need to have an intervention? Or if it’s already too late?