Living with Dementia

Dementia is an ugly word that contains beautiful lessons. Lessons of learning compassion even as one witnesses the core of persona slowly eroded over time by the onset of this disease. This is the story of my mother and dementia, and my role as caregiver. It is haunting, heart-breaking and in places, humorous. I hope that for those of you who are caretakers or who have someone who has dementia will find some kind of solace in these pages as we witness the slow descent over time of a loved one, into forgetfulness, and something else, I cannot quite define, something beyond our definitions of what it means to be human. Just because we do not yet fully understand dementia does not mean that it is a meaningless life for those who have it.