morningstory

If you look long into the eyes of a loved one with dementia

you will see the spring slides of a child's rattle. Warm afternoons

at Pembles Beach in River Falls. The night you and your

friends entered the interstate going the wrong way thru

laughter and hot beer. A husband will rise from the grave

as if he was made, from the balls up, of cotton. Nor is it

true, nor shall it ever be, that someone else will

know how far you like your hat pushed down on your head.

And like a bird with its own eyes pecked out, you will take

with your only good wing left, and push the brim of it up

towards the horizon.

Reviews

[forgotten_ghosts]

Really wonderful piece of writing on a tough and sad topic. It is also very touching because it reminds me of my grandmother who suffered under a certain kind of dementia!
Great Work, Dana!

[h d e rushin]

thank you much forgotten_ghosts....just getting my internet service restored....happy holidays to you and yours....dana

[Bacchus]

Beautiful piece on a hard subject.
A husband will rise from the grave... perfect line.

[h d e rushin]

thank you dear Bacchus for stopping by to visit me again....dana

[Beccy]

I understand that returning to childhood, eschewing the current time, is something that happens frequently to people who suffer from dementia, and medical opinion is simply that it is recent memory which is lost first.

I'm not sure though about that medical opinion. For the vast majority of us, childhood holds more good memories than bad ones; and I prefer to think that for those struck down by dementia, it's simply a better, simpler place to be.

Beccy.

[h d e rushin]

great insight..My mother has, what I was told, was a mild case of dementia. I have stopped trying to figure it out; the whim of it, the surpassing examination of it. It seems as if everything that happened that was good or bad get's sorted through they laid before you without the discerning filters of recompense, guilt or forgiveness. I don't even think that the medical profession understands what happens to the mind that is going through such a battle. Thank you my friend for those wonderful insights......dana

[W.k.kortas]

To be a bit maudlin, it is indeed about the little things, a life built on tiny events, an endless series of millions of tiny yes-no decisions. The manner in which you have intertwined the wistful and decidedly hopeful...well, that's just world-class instincts making it to the page.

[h d e rushin]

thank you wk....

ps: Sagamore Hill was me, trying my damndest to sound like you......dana

[W.k.kortas]

I think you sound better as me than I sound as me.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

perhaps it is a blessing for some, not remembering the bad moments...but those good moments lost forever, the now lost forever...the hat tipped toward a horizon no longer understood...

very sad.

j.

[h d e rushin]

thanks Jacob and perhaps it is a blessing to not remember the bad moments, or for that matter,
any moments at all. Dementia takes it's toll on everyone who Is around it. dana