Sad, but true

A young man, a former student, sat in my living room one night this week and told  my husband and me about a phone conversation with his grandmother.  The young man had to pretend to be his recently deceased grandfather. The grandmother has dementia and she thinks the grandfather is just away on a work related trip. She will not settle down and go to bed at night until she gets that phone call.  No grandson should have to do that.

 Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease.  It steals people from us. It takes away memories, causes confusion and exhausts those who are care givers.  I know because it stole my grandmother and then my mother-in-law and also an aunt and an uncle.  Every time I have to stop to think, what day is this or whether I completed a task, or what I did with a certain item a bit of fear creeps into my thoughts...what if one day it steals me too?
I hope someone finds a way to stop this thief very soon.

*If you have to try explaining this dreadful disease to a child, I recommend this book by Lester L. Laminack.