Alzheimer’s:Living
with Dementia
once we thought THEY
were just wacky/crazy
zombies
forgetting everything
Oh
you are…?
now
something's wrong
with us
DIAGNOSIS.
trapped behind neurons
terror cancer
of memory
Really?
You can’t catch it?
That’s
what the doctors said?
We
promise. Promise.
We:
ghosts of ourselves
listen to us
you don't know this
disease
don't know it can be
a place of
transformation
connection
yes
differences evolve
lives
shift
yet
We are ourselves
we still
engage in
laughter
people
ice cream
we still
share fun
we
still
use humor - with compassion
he says: A guy is still
a guy
persistent
competitive
a winner
we say: We are
still who we are
we do what we have to do
to live with
passion
to continue with life
to help people understand
call
it hutzpah if you will
but:
We have a future
we
are:
beautiful
luminescent
positive
we are:
creative
spirits
connectors
truth tellers
we are:
sunshine
A shared experience
We are new
we have purpose
we
are becoming
we are living
WE Are.
Living
with Dementia is a group of diverse people--ages 50 to 80, men
and
women, employed and retired-- who meet twice a month at the
Maine
Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association to share their
experiences of
living with dementia. They come together to learn
from one another and
to connect with others who are also going
through the life-changing
transformation of coping with both the
disease and social perceptions
of the disease. All are becoming
advocates to change the face of
dementia. They insist that they
are neither whiners nor wimps; neither
helpless nor stupid; and
they are definitely not giving up. They share
laughter and joy
while also giving space for each to mourn the
inevitable losses
that come with the disease. The group is hoping that
the readers
of their poem will see that it is possible to keep
going—even
with a diagnosis of dementia. They want you to know that
even as
the disease slows them down, it can unleash surprising
creativity.
They refuse to be invisible. They are not ALZHEIMERS; they
are
individuals—each unique—still transforming, still growing,
still
learning, still open to life.
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