WHAT DO YOU DO?

It is hard enough to see ourselves getting older and falling prey to all that that entails, but I think it is harder to see a life time acquaintance falling apart.

I have always said that I could tolerate the physical aspect of getting older (now, I wonder at the wisdon of that remark), but the mental aspect terrified and still does terrify me. There always seems to be a treatment or medication to help us seniors get through the physical aspects of getting old. But there is little one can do when one begins to fade away mentally.

Even if you take 100 pills a day and are confined to a wheelchair and still have your sight and hearing, you can survive. But what do you do when you mind begins to go? We all have moments (more than we like) when we forget things or forget a word or rattle on or tell the same story 10 times. Where is the quality of life when the mind leaves us?

I have an acquaintnace whom I have know for 43 years. schools. She has always been an alert person. Over the past few months I have noticed that she is having problems remembering things and is becoming argumentative at times.

We can chat on the phone and within 10 minutes she has forgotten what I had said and asks me the same questions. When I tell her I just told you, she denies it and acts confused. This happens almost evey conversation with her. She seems to get confused over the simpliest things. I can see the mental confusion seeping into her life and there is nothing I can do about it, just as there would be nothing I could do if it were happening to me.

It is sad...sadder maybe in knowing that this could be happening to me, that I may reach this stage of my life. It is a sad and rude reminder that we all get old, that we all have fralities, that all must face our own mortality. It is like going to a class reunion and looking around at your classmates and thinking, "Oh, my God, did they get old!!! When did that happen?" Yet at the same time, you do not see yourself as getting older along with them. When it comes to ourselves, we generally deny what is obvious in others.

As far as my acquaintance goes, what do you do? There is little you can do, but remain friends and hope that you will have the patience to keep looking at HER and not at her mental state and deal with it accordingly.



ANSWER TO LAST TRIVIA QUESTION: Marlon Brando as Terry uttered “You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been someone Charley, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. I'm a bum. It was you, Charley.” in this 1954 film. What was the film? "On the Waterfront"
TODAY'S TRIVIA QUESTION: Who encouraged us “to reach out and touch somebody?"
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A good day is when the shit hits the fan and I have time to duck