During the last years of her life when my Mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s she rarely knew who I was. She would mistake me for a nurse whom she would thank for my gift and on occasion she was convinced that she had never met me before.
On my last visit to her some years before her death, she had a few lucid moments and in one of these she briefly talked about my son, thinking he was a little boy still and saying that he could come and stay with her at any time.
How sad it was to see this once strong woman reduced to a shell.
Because I live on the other side of the world to her – she in London and me in Wellington NZ – I only managed to visit every two years. On each visit there was a noticeable decline and her hold on reality was slipping further away.
Following her death I was ‘haunted’ with her question to me “Who are you?” that she asked on my final visit. I determined then to find out all I could about keeping the mind active as well as to exercise to keep the body trim and fit.
I knew that our thoughts determine the results we achieve and in the next weeks and months I will share with you my journey. The journey is still continuing and will do so until I die at which time I will not have to ask my daughter “Who are you?”.
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 