This is a story of a ninety-five years-old woman who faces the decline of her mind and how it impacts her everyday life.
When winter comes with its brisk winds and a coldness that wraps the days with layers of snow that change once familar images, it takes time to walk the path to enlightenment. But it does, eventually.
The winter of a mind walks the same path, but time is not always as kind. Sometimes the blurs only get more unshapely and even when a light opens up, its brightness cannot be counted on.
What a riveting story you wrote about the horror that dementia can bring someone already fighting the effects of age. Although it appeared that her family was close at hand, she seemed to want her independence and rejected their help.
Your story is a prize winner.
It is a sad situation that affects many elderly. My mother quit driving at 88 and then, at 89, decided to go to assisted living. She has been frustrated in that environment because she has aphasia, is nearly deaf, has very bad joints and walks with a walker painfully and was losing her eyesight to cataracts until recent eye surgery.
At 91, her mind is still very good though while she struggles to remain independent. She calls me every Monday promptly at 4 pm because she has trouble hearing the phone ring and getting to it to answer. I am 1300 miles away and will likely not see her again. I last saw her in 2011. My sister, fortunately, is in the same town and sees to her many needs. Still, she seems quite happy now, especially when she's talking to me on her TTY.
The deep-dive literary meditations presented as stories, poems, and essays in The American Poet Who Went Home Again, A Mosaic of My Soul at Work, have captivated and inspired readers ever since its first paperback publication in 2008.
Married ten years, and more in love than ever, Robert and Marcie have everything to live for. But a terrible secret is breaking Robert's heart: he knows that Marcie is about to die...
