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Showing posts with the label Alzheimer's

The not so sweet "good death"

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In the first world countries the so-called achievement in medicine of the good death now sees its dark side. With the Mirage to avoid unbearable suffering to terminally ill, countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium modified 15 years their health and legal structures to help the dying. But this form of assistance has proved to be a trap for many seniors, disabled and mentally ill of these prosperous countries. At that time, the Catholic faith warned about the effects to our individualistic world that ignores the other so easily. spanish version on: http://mujer-catolica.blogspot.com/2016/07/el-vacio-detras-de-la-buena-muerte.html

Fishing for the Words

My dad has Alzheimer's. We don't talk about it much if for no reason other than, it hurts. He is still Dad. He will always be Dad; but the shell of him is being slowly stripped away. Word loss creep first led to fewer letters. I've saved them all. When he visits, we get to eat together, to share the chaos that is my life and laugh a bit, sometimes it overwhelms him --which is reasonable; they overwhelm me sometimes too. Alzheimer's is brutal and it's ongoing and it makes my heart howl sometimes when I know he's fishing for the next word, the next thought and they all get away. When my grandmother had it, I remember I did what I could to joke it away whenever possible, and I could usually make her laugh. "You always get to go new places. You always meet new people. You can claim you met anyone you want to and impress because we'll never be certain and neither will you." We had a good laugh about that as I helped her get her "doll face&quo