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This is a story from the Portland Maine newspaper, chronicling the long good-bye of a beautiful couple up on the coast of Maine who are living and loving in the face of Altzhiemers Disease. It is powerfully and beautifully written. It is inspirational.....a Love Story. Special Report: The Challenge of our Age | Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
Great story. Lost my Dad almost a year ago. He had Altzhiemers. It started with him thinking maybe he was going to work one morning when he had been retired for over 30 yearsand went downhill quickly from there. It was like he was gone from his body three years before his body finally decided to give up and go to.
He had the same blank stare and skeletal look this woman in the story has has. Altzhimers steals the person from the body. It made me realize what "person" in the word personality means. Your person-ality really IS you. It is who you are as a person; it's your life experiences and memories, it's how you relate to your family and friends, it's your ability to communicate and participate in life, it's the skills and things you have learned. Without that "personality", you are just a body.
My dad was 89 and spent his last year in assisted living care. The assisted living facility consisted of both residents who had altzhiemers and dementia, and residents who were fine mentally but had lost some physical ability. I decided the residents in wheelchair with their minds intact were much better off than the walking around ones who had lost theirs.
This is a terrible disease, hope they find better treatments for it in the future because it could happen to any of us.
Great story. Lost my Dad almost a year ago. He had Altzhiemers. It started with him thinking maybe he was going to work one morning when he had been retired for over 30 yearsand went downhill quickly from there. It was like he was gone from his body three years before his body finally decided to give up and go to.
He had the same blank stare and skeletal look this woman in the story has has. Altzhimers steals the person from the body. It made me realize what "person" in the word personality means. Your person-ality really IS you. It is who you are as a person; it's your life experiences and memories, it's how you relate to your family and friends, it's your ability to communicate and participate in life, it's the skills and things you have learned. Without that "personality", you are just a body.
My dad was 89 and spent his last year in assisted living care. The assisted living facility consisted of both residents who had altzhiemers and dementia, and residents who were fine mentally but had lost some physical ability. I decided the residents in wheelchair with their minds intact were much better off than the walking around ones who had lost theirs.
This is a terrible disease, hope they find better treatments for it in the future because it could happen to any of us.
Thanks for posting and condolences on the prolonged loss of your father to Altzhiemers. I appreciated the discussion you made around Person and Personality.....it is the body and the spirit that come together in the "person".
I lost my father to Altzhiemers and saw it rob him of all the attributes he most valued in himself....and make a strong, bright, kindly man....into a wraith....tortured and frightened and without any discernible awareness of himself, family or surroundings. However the nurses who cared for him the last couple of years said.....he never lost his manners....it was apparent that he was a gentleman.....right to the end.
What a sad story. It reminds me of my father who took care of my mom after her debilitating stroke for 13 long years. A few years after her death, he had a stroke and found himself in the same situation.
Their experience and this story makes me favor legalizing euthanasia. No matter how poignant the story was, there is no advantage to existing without any quality of life.
Location: Finally made it to Florida and lovin' every minute!
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It's funny, Montanamom....I thought the same thing about the blank stare and skeletal look. I saw the same thing with my g'mother and the lady I sat with the past year (she passed away late this spring).
I lost my father to Altzhiemers and saw it rob him of all the attributes he most valued in himself....and make a strong, bright, kindly man....into a wraith....tortured and frightened and without any discernible awareness of himself, family or surroundings. However the nurses who cared for him the last couple of years said.....he never lost his manners....it was apparent that he was a gentleman.....right to the end.
This is so much of it, what you said about no discernible awareness. My Dad became frightened also, of things like getting a shower, and being touched. It was like a paranoia, and a few times towards the very end while I was there and the caregivers were doing these things, I heard him use "words" I had never, ever heard him use in the over 50 years that he was my father. Didn't even know he knew them! I realize this is part of the disease, but it was so far from how he really was that, along with his loss of ability to enjoy the things he loved so much, such as his music and good food, it hurt to see this, as I'm sure the husband in the story hurts for his wife's losses. You don't hurt for yourself, you hurt for them. But you miss the person they were before.
Dad had lived a full and rich life, it was a relief the morning they called and told me he had passed peacefully in his sleep. He was set free to be himself again, and this man's wife will be soon too.
I had read the story in the newspaper and hadn't realized there was a video to supplement it. Wow....a powerful story.....I just love Larry and his enduring love and patience. (I also love his Maine accent)
The story said she passed Oct. 3. I had a dream last night that was similar to this story. I guess eating that steak right before bed was not a good idea.
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