Venerable

A quiet, easy day of gazing out the window at the baby blue sky, catching up on laundry and chores, and reading a marvelous graphic novel, Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass, by Dana Walrath. She’s a medical anthropologist and artist who became her mother’s care-giver and writes, “Reframing dementia as a different way of being, as a window into another reality, lets people living in that state be our teachers--useful, true humans who contribute to our collective good....”

It’s a collection of whimsical collage-enhanced drawings with a running text. 

“It’s a good thing I ran into you in the parking lot,” Alice often said to me. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t!” Alice was relieved to be living with us. She just wasn’t sure who we were.

“Dana, am I going crazy? You would tell me if I had lost my marbles, wouldn’t you?”
I’ve heard these questions many times. Repetition. Anyone who lives with Alzheimer’s knows from repetition. As her rudder, I always supplied Alice with the same steady answers. 
“No. You’re not crazy. You have Alzheimer’s disease so you can’t remember what just happened.”
“Oh. I forgot. What a lousy thing to have.”
“Would you like a cup of tea?”
“I would love a cup of tea.”