Early onset of this debilitating fatal illness is one of the banes of life and a terror for everyone who loves someone afflicted with it. Aside from the obvious sympathy for the person who has the illness, there's the fear that you will get it too. What little memory loss, or inability to concentrate, is the first straw in the wind, heralding the inevitable beginning of the inevitable end.
One day last week I was doing errands in town and suddenly couldn't remember the name of the street where I live. After several futile minutes searching my memory banks, I finally had to pull out my wallet and consult my driver's license. Only then did I know the name of the street where I live.
It sent me into a little panic.
As a history teacher, I have always had to remember arcane bits of trivia: how many breakdowns did Henry VI of England suffer; who was Secretary of State in 1977; what was the difference between the National Assembly and the National Convention and so forth. If or when those bits of knowledge disappear and I'm left with nothing but the lyrics to Gilligan's Island, or who won the World Series in 1947, what will I do?
Maybe not notice. Among the last surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. A lesser known signer who lived into the nineteenth century was Charles Thomson, secretary to the Continental Congress. In one of their last letters, either Adams or Jefferson mentioned that Thomson still lived and was "innocent and happy as a baby."
Perhaps that's not such a bad way to end one's days.
For those of you who are wondering, Henry had two catatonic breakdowns, Cyrus Vance was Secretary of State in 1977, and the National Convention was the most radical phase of the French Revolution.
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
And the Yankees.
Pete,
ReplyDeleteI feel terrible about Marilyn. The last time I spoke to her on the phone was shortly before my daughter Amy's wedding, and she was obviously not herself. My father had extreme dementia during the final 18 mos. of his life. He spent the final 8 months on a nursing home Alzheimer's unit. I never expected to see him like that. My understanding is that our paternal grandmother had this disease also. There are normal lapses of memory for people over 50; but I also experience some of those at times, and they are scary. On another note (of trivia) the scene of the SS Minnow pulling out of the harbor during the Gilligan's them song was filmed on Nov. 22, 1963!