Genesis002
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia*, a general term for memory loss and other cognitive abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60–80% of dementia cases.*
Alzheimer’s changes typically begin in the part of the brain that affects learning. As Alzheimer’s advances through the brain it leads to increasingly severe symptoms, including disorientation, mood and behavior changes; deepening confusion about events, time and place; unfounded suspicions about family, friends and professional caregivers; more serious memory loss and behavior changes; and difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking. — Alzheimer’s Association
Three people who are very dear to me (my mother, my next-door neighbor, and my best friend) have all fallen victim to Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
AD is not merely being forgetful, losing one’s cell phone, misplacing the car keys, or failing to remember the name of the restaurant you ate at last night. It is a gradual, insidious erosion of a life. Day by day, abilities lessen, wither, and die. Eventually, even the simplest things we learned as infants and toddlers diminish and fade away.
Do you remember watching your child learn to balance on two wobbly legs and take his or her first steps? Those with AD lose the ability to maintain their balance.
Babies’ first words? Words disappear, not just remembering names but remembering speech at all. My mother grew up in a German-speaking household. In time she forgot her second language (English) and only communicated with us in German. Then the German disappeared and there were only grunts … punctuated by an occasional lucid string of profanities.
As abilities slip away, even eating becomes a challenge. Those with AD forget how to chew. Solid food is replaced with pablum. Then swallowing fades away. Often that is the final note. Aspiration, pneumonia, end of life.
Here are three brief tales of the three people I loved and lost to AD.
She baked bread without a recipe. She sewed all our clothes. To me, she was Wonder Woman. She gave birth to six children, with uncounted miscarriages in between. I was her youngest, and…