Opus 2025-083: Going Crazy

My son is worried about me.  As far as I can tell it is just the kind of worry you have when someone is getting up to being really old.  I don’t remember if I brought it up or he did but he shared there are three general categories of Old Age Crazy:  Alzheimer’s, dimentia, and just the forgetfulness how old age.

I’ve had experience with all three.  One of the scary things about it is that it is very possible to know what you’re going through.  There is an elderly gentleman at our church and the first statements you ever made to me as we were at a group dinner was that he had at Alzheimer’s.  He was very open about it and had a very good attitude.  So it’s possible to know that you were losing your mind to Alzheimer’s and still function to some degree.

Then I think of my mother-in-law who had advancing dementia.  Once again, she knew it.  She knew for instance, that she had a daughter, but she couldn’t remember what she looked like.  I think I shared that before.  But what it says is that you can be going downhill on a one-way track, know you are going there and have to live with it.

Then there’s just the gradual forgetfulness of old age.  I see that on a regular basis in a zoom meeting, where I am probably one of the younger ones.  We have to constantly come up with names and words for each other because we just don’t remember.  Again, we know this.  It can be frustrating but to some degree it is part of life.

Ultimately it comes down to our attitude and how we’re going to deal with it.  

homo unius libri