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WEATHERING LIFE’S STORMS | CARE GIVING & GRIEF
Poetic Pauses In The Eye Of An Alzheimer Disease Storm
One way to relieve stress when you are the care giver
Looking back on my late husband’s descent into the darkness of Alzheimer’s Disease, I’d compare his end of life story to that of a star in the constellation of Sirius that slowly lost its brilliance, as if the star’s light was fading away in real time. Eventually, my once-bright star reached the end of his life between heart-failure and Alzheimer’s — in a blaze of a stellar like collision that was so terrible it only left fragments of his former self behind.
The dementia had stripped him of everything he loved to do, mentally changed him into a raging angry old man, and took all of his dreams away long before it took his life. Parts of that loss were his declines in cognitive function, memory loss, personality changes, confusion, and disorientation.
Love had eluded him for most of his abusive childhood, which left him especially vulnerable. His losing the ability to remember the later love he was given and the times we had together, was nothing short of a sad supernova event. Not just for him but for all of us who loved him.
“The journey through Alzheimer’s became a battle on two fronts…
