Описание:
Alzheimers is an equal opportunity disease. No amount of power walking or leafy vegetables or crossword puzzles has proven to prevent it. Just as none of our protests, wishful thinking, or denial keeps it at bay, or changes its trajectory. Im pretty sure of this because I lost my father to Alzheimers disease--over and over again.
Our family lived with the disease for over ten years while my sisters and I did our utmost to accommodate the disease. To lessen its impact on our father who was suffering from the disease, and our mother who preferred not to acknowledge it.
There were weeks or months when the disease seemed to plateau and few changes occurred. And then there were weeks when every day revealed some decline--whether subtle or substantial--which we pretty much expected, but for which we were totally unprepared. Knowledge of the disease and its progression was merely academic, and neither comforting nor taken in stride as the disease steadily wreaked its havoc.
Its The Process (and yes, it merits capitalization) into which our family was thrust and to which we unwittingly obeyed that I feel compelled to share with others. The Process was a force onto itself that underlay our family trying arrangement after arrangement to protect our parents, respect their wishes, and remain true to ourselves.
If I, for one had known from the beginning that doing the right thing for our parents was a process of sound decision-making, information gathering, good intentions, gut instincts, and balancing logic with emotion, I would have suffered far less consternation and self-doubt.
Was The Process otherworldly? Or was it the natural outcome of four daughters working together in the best way and for the best reasons to ensure their parents last years were becoming of the lives they lived?
No way to know.
