Little Lady in A Cheery Place
It’s a cheery place
And smells good
We support each
Other on our first
Visit to
a little lady
who smiles
politely without
recognition
for an
instant until
with a crumpling
face and darting
eyes she says
voice trembling
on the edge of
anticipated loss
“They’re all
having
cookies
now”
We let her
Go with the
Waiting nurse
And leave
It is a cheery place
Dementia
Without us
So sad, Pearl, well done.
ReplyDeleteSad for the visitors - yes.
DeleteAwww... I suppose dementia is okay for the person if they have forgotten that they have it. At least she was happy with her cookies :)
ReplyDeleteOne cannot know - but perhaps that is true :) Thank you for stopping and commenting. I do appreciate! :)
DeleteWhat a poignant moment. Life's pleasures, reduced to a cookie. Fantastic, these poems you've shared today, Pearl. I love them. I so adore old people. Older than me, I mean:)(There are still a few of them:))
ReplyDeleteHaha Sherry - adore your sense of humor. There will always be those older than you - chronologically and certainly in that forever young essence dancing in the blue sky. Thank you so very, very much. Perhaps, there is something essentially delightful about pleasure being reduced to a cookie :)
DeleteThis is a rip your heart moment beautifully captured.
ReplyDeleteOoooh powerful words - so very moving to me. Thank you, thank you.
DeleteVery poignant. It is so sad when something like 'cookies' is the only highlight of one's day.....you captured Alzheimer's / Dementia well.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it seems as though life itself has come full circle - Appreciate the comment and your taking the time to stop and write :)
Deleteyou built the piece nicely, and the last stanza was the perfect ending. Thanks for posting and Viva la
ReplyDeleteAh Isadora - Thank you for the careful reading - I am thrilled that you enjoyed the poem's progression.
DeleteYour poem brought back the memory of leaving my precious mother in a memory care unit where she spent almost two years as her Alzheimer's progressed. Leaving her, seeing the look in her eyes, feeling the tremble in her hands turned me into a sobbing, hysterical mess ~~ after I left the building of course. Later, I learned she had gone to lunch with the residents and had actually done well. Cookies may have played a tiny part in that, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteYes dear Helen, I suspect that cookies may have very well played a part - I think that the heartbreak for families and friends (as I mentioned earlier) is the sense of being isolated from and forgotten by their loved one - however it is my experience that those who are living in an altered state - are doing just that - living in an altered state - when 'pushed' to remember or relate to former interactions that are outside the scope of the new, much simpler reality it can be very confusing. There is no doubt, for me, that Alzheimers ( do dislike the term 'dementia' and its colloquial connotations) is far more difficult for those who are living on the outside. Thank you for stopping and your heartfelt comments - In honor of your Mother.
DeleteThis is so good. I remember many residents of the dementia (yes, awful word) unit at the care facility were more concerned with their meals than with their visitors. And, undoubtedly, it was harder for the family because we had to deal with actual reality.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this.
K