WATCHING MY SISTER....DISAPPEAR

My silence has not meant that I don't still have a lot to say.  

It means that sometimes there are just no words left to

describe what it is like to watch someone you

love disappear.

Alzheimer's disease not only numbs the mind of

the person who is afflicted with the disease......

It numbs the minds of those who watch.

For years, I thought that a cure or break through was just months or years away.

There have been bright spots in research and I still have hope for Peggy. But that hope is starting to feel some numbness.

I don't visit the early stage of the disease as it took over her mind as often as I did before.

If I go there, I visit for a short while......I remember her frustration, her fear,

her questioning.

I will never forget the morning that she called, hesitated and finally asked the name of the white stuff that you put on cereal.

I thought she was joking but realized that she was serious and was to embarrassed to ask her husband.

We shared many calls like that one as she began to forget.

She finally did forget but I have all of those painful calls stored in my memory.

We talked several times a day for years and then

one day, the phone didn't ring and there were no more

calls from my sister.....ever again.

She had forgotten how to use the telephone.

 Sometimes, numbness would be welcomed as I think of Peggy and her decent into this disease of the mind.

As long as I continue to remember, I will remember my athletic, active and intelligent sister.

I will remember the way she was before she began to disappear, before her mind was frozen into numbness.

Some people make the world special just by being in it.....

Peggy is one of those people who remain special... Even in numbness.

I Love You Today, Peggy!

Mary Louise

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #6 Comment from maozmon 
  4/6/08 9:14 PM | Permalink

  Hi mary louise~I think back to when my late mother in law must have been in the early stages of alzheimers; she was a fastidious list maker, I think that helped her, and when she did start forgetting, her sense of humor always showed how positive she was.  One of the strange things was that she had always had some obsessive compulsive tendencies, especially about her diet, and as the disease progressed, these disappeared, and she enjoyed foods she hadnt let herself eat in years.  Her son that lived with her was devoted to her, and she only went into the hospital at the very end. How I miss her!!
• #5 Comment from loisontheweb 
  4/5/08 3:10 AM | Permalink

    You still have the physical Peggy ... it is painful for you; mercifully ... it is not painful for Peggy.  She is alive in your memory; she is still your sister.  You are blessed for not forsaking her.  We would each hope for such a dedicated person in our lives should we go down that same road as Peggy did.
  LOIS
  http://journals.aol.com/lowis6535/UpperPeninsulaMIandbeyond/
• #4 Comment from cmcob2 
  4/3/08 9:45 AM | Permalink

  my thoughts and prayers aare with you.love and compassion shown never fades from the loved ones memory.
                                                              charlie
                                                               caregiver survivor   000
• #3 Comment from richardson749 
  3/30/08 5:15 PM | Permalink

  Would just like to comment that your journal has left me in tears, the love that you have for your sister shines .Love and Prayers to you all .Helen
  http://journals.aol.co.uk/richardson749/helens-world/
• #2 Comment from wendy4145 
  3/30/08 3:10 PM | Permalink

  I am so sorry Mary Louise................
  
  So sorry.
  
  Love,
  Wendy