There are times when PWoDs (People Without Dementia) experience memory loss, confusion, and disorientation. While navigating the waves of uncertainty, caregivers encounter scary yet reversible symptoms of dementia often referred to as caregiver dementia. During some interviews with people for VOICES with Dementia, when I lose my train of thought, the person with dementia calmly gets us both on track. Realizing the irony of this memory prompt, I laugh and ask, “Which one of us really has dementia?”
Of course, I ask in jest. I do not live with dementia. To be serious, those who do, are trying to overcome a stigmatized life. Beyond this, people with dementia I’ve interviewed are changing the course of their dreams with courage. Click on VOICES with Dementia to choose from three years of monthly featured stories.
When your train of thought leaves the station without you, keep your sense of humor. It happens to all of us. Humor leaves us feeling lighter, more buoyant, and open to learning.
Standing in the lobby of a California nursing home, my father and I waited “to catch the train to England to support the war effort.”
We waited… the train never came.
We would postpone helping “support our countrymen in the war effort” that evening. It was time for dinner. Like a good soldier, my father followed the CNA to the mess hall.
Meanwhile, I learned the train had departed 60 years earlier during World War II as told in an old issue of LIFE Magazine.
