In order to make the reader see the perspective of this brief thought let me introduce the setting. I am a caregiver employed at a skilled nursing facility. One day I happened to notice two residents who were suffering from Dementia in the front lobby. If you have worked with residents with this pathology you know how it affects these innocent people. If you do not know about Dementia I challenge you to research, educate, and volunteer some of you time to these forgotten citizens. According to the CDC more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s a form of Dementia.
The Unknown Thought
A forward lunge coupled with shallow breaths, barely audible, but her actions profound. Another sits and observes with the highest admiration for her happenstance partner in crime’s courageous act. No words are spoken, brief glances, osculating jaws, and sagging skin with a burning spirit struggling within. A long moment draws out with no one moving, not a word passes between them, no gestures, only the fleeting alignment of eyes disclosing the dire need they share. A need comprised of a void too great to imagine, and minds too limited to fully manifest the plan, but yet their spirit’s pushes onward. Just as rivers obey gravity and can go from a sleeping lull to a relentless destructive force in a matter of hours, driven on with a pouring rain. The spirit, unlike the feeble body needs no rest only stimulation, a spark to ignite the flame. This spirit needs not to be reminded by a weakening mind, only for the frail cognitive mechanism to allow the spirit to assume control.
Insubstantial legs jut out making demands as the heels of her shoes dig hopelessly against the slick tile floor. Deep bends at the waist as if she was in agony and yet not a sound came from her. The silent partner grinned as the wheels of the worn wheel chair began to creep forward, progress. Yes, progress at last, as if the idea was sprung upon them both anew. Excitement filled a sliver of the void, just as the sky lightens hours before the dawn, hope. Hope sets the spirit a fire and capitalizing on this new found source of energy as the mind immediately turns placid allowing the plan to again be revealed. Triumph! As the sun illuminates the mountain peaks, what was hidden is now a striking beacon, the road that leads home.
Pride swelled within the rekindled spirit as her hand reached for the bar of the glass door. Then it happened. An ear-piercing shriek penetrated the blissful moment stripping away the glorious moment in a mocking manner, the brilliant plan dissolved without either partner noticing. Firm hands, ease in from behind as a wrenching betrayal witnessed only by the silent partner. A kind reassuring voice chimes in redirecting the moment allowing the proposal to mire deeper into oblivion. Quietly the companion watches in horror as the opportunity is lost, not able to hold the thought it is forgotten as the alarm falls silent.
There deep in the recesses of the mind, filled with decades of countless precious memories trapped, remaining irretrievable. Brief flashes of time gone past, faces of love ones and places they grew up spending those many years of a fruitful life. A picture on her wall bares a reflection of a beautiful woman in her twenties. She stands beside a car and a strong man whose times have come and gone. Behind them stands a humble, but sound white house filled with promise and delight that newly weds can only generate. All these treasures lost to time and the affects of aging. Dementia is a cruel pathology the robs us of the things we hold most dear and punishes those around us who are helpless to eradicate its prevalence.
A forward lunge coupled with shallow breaths, barely audible, but her actions profound. Another sits and observes with the highest admiration for her happenstance partner in crime’s courageous act. No words are spoken, brief glances, osculating jaws, and sagging skin with a burning spirit struggling within. A long moment draws out with no one moving, not a word passes between them, no gestures, only the fleeting alignment of eyes disclosing the dire need they share. A need comprised of a void too great to imagine, and minds too limited to fully manifest the plan, but yet their spirit’s pushes onward. Just as rivers obey gravity and can go from a sleeping lull to a relentless destructive force in a matter of hours, driven on with a pouring rain. The spirit, unlike the feeble body needs no rest only stimulation, a spark to ignite the flame. This spirit needs not to be reminded by a weakening mind, only for the frail cognitive mechanism to allow the spirit to assume control.
Insubstantial legs jut out making demands as the heels of her shoes dig hopelessly against the slick tile floor. Deep bends at the waist as if she was in agony and yet not a sound came from her. The silent partner grinned as the wheels of the worn wheel chair began to creep forward, progress. Yes, progress at last, as if the idea was sprung upon them both anew. Excitement filled a sliver of the void, just as the sky lightens hours before the dawn, hope. Hope sets the spirit a fire and capitalizing on this new found source of energy as the mind immediately turns placid allowing the plan to again be revealed. Triumph! As the sun illuminates the mountain peaks, what was hidden is now a striking beacon, the road that leads home.
Pride swelled within the rekindled spirit as her hand reached for the bar of the glass door. Then it happened. An ear-piercing shriek penetrated the blissful moment stripping away the glorious moment in a mocking manner, the brilliant plan dissolved without either partner noticing. Firm hands, ease in from behind as a wrenching betrayal witnessed only by the silent partner. A kind reassuring voice chimes in redirecting the moment allowing the proposal to mire deeper into oblivion. Quietly the companion watches in horror as the opportunity is lost, not able to hold the thought it is forgotten as the alarm falls silent.
There deep in the recesses of the mind, filled with decades of countless precious memories trapped, remaining irretrievable. Brief flashes of time gone past, faces of love ones and places they grew up spending those many years of a fruitful life. A picture on her wall bares a reflection of a beautiful woman in her twenties. She stands beside a car and a strong man whose times have come and gone. Behind them stands a humble, but sound white house filled with promise and delight that newly weds can only generate. All these treasures lost to time and the affects of aging. Dementia is a cruel pathology the robs us of the things we hold most dear and punishes those around us who are helpless to eradicate its prevalence.
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