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If Ever It Is Me
With my father, his brother and their father having had late onset Alzheimer's I can't help but wonder if someday it will be my fate. This is what I have told my family.
If it is ever me with Alzheimer's disease please protect me. I don't want to be lost. I have a terrible fear of ever being lost. Keep me safe from those who would take advantage of my confusion. Keep me fed and clean and dry. That having been said...please don't try to keep me at home any longer than you can do it without taking a toll on your lives. If this is my fate let me be in a happy place in my mind where you are my babies and I will give you hugs and kisses even if I don't call you by name.
Let me be a part of your life but don't surrender your life for mine. I want my husband to have a wife. I don't especially want to meet her, but I do want him to keep living once I no longer understand. I want to keep as much dignity as I can for as long as I can and I want those who love me to understand that if I am not myself on the outside I am still me on the inside.
Bring me a puppy to cuddle, home made cookies to eat and soft blankets to cover me. Fill my room with pictures of my life so I can look at them and know I am loved.
Don't ask me about my life...tell me about my life. Feel free to leave out the times I wasn't at my best, or times that bring back painful memories (deaths of those I loved). Tell me about the good times.
Deborah Uetz author of Into the Mist, When Someone You Love Has Alzheimer's Disease
Arizona Republic, AZ - 22 hours ago
She has received cards, letters and phone calls, but I am having a difficult time dealing with the grief and loss, too. Why can't people realize that Troy ...
Monsters and Critics.com
Monsters and Critics.com - Oct 13, 2008
... “Epilogue” by Anne Roiphe, USA Today describes it as: “ a searing memoir that details her struggle to cope with the loss of her husband three years ago. ...
Reuters - 9 hours ago
By Michael Kahn LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have pinpointed a key brain chemical involved in dealing with the sudden loss or long-term separation of a ...
Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, AZ - 6 hours ago
At some point in life, virtually everyone experiences grief - the emotions and sensations associated with intense loss. The loss may be the death of a loved ...
Reader's Digest, NY - Oct 14, 2008
Get sufficient rest and nutrition; grief is tiring. • Consider joining a bereavement or pet loss group. • You can post a memorial, join a chat room, ...
seattlepi.com Microsoft blog - 7 hours ago
Student doctors need the opportunity to see people and the grief that they experience after they leave the veterinary office. Programs like the Pet Loss ...
Log Cabin Democrat, AR - 9 hours ago
Give yourself a break from grief. Although you must work through grief, you do not need to focus on it all the time. It is healthy to find distractions like ...
Goshen College News - Oct 6, 2008
GOSHEN, Ind. – The sixth annual Goshen College and Ryan's Place Grief Seminar, titled "Between Loss and Hope: Tools to Cope," will be held Friday, ...
PR Web (press release), WA - 16 hours ago
Gloria Lintermans and Dr. Marilyn Stolzman are co-authors of THE HEALING POWER OF GRIEF: The Journey Through Loss to Life and Laughter (Sourcebooks, Inc., ...
Mooresville Tribune, VA - Oct 13, 2008
Yet, they too experience the gamut of emotions of grief around the loss of a loved one. When it comes to grieving, no man is an island. ...
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