I'd seen a poem posted on the internet a lot recently titled "Alzheimer's Poem". Maybe it was unearthed due to the popularity of the 2014 movie Still Alice based on Lisa Genova's (fictional) 2009 book of the same name. In the movie, Julianne Moore is Alice Howland, neuroscientist and linguistics professor who just celebrated her 50th birthday. She is also beginning to suffer from a rare form of early-onset Familial Alzheimer's disease. Moore won the Academy Award for her epic performance of wife, professor, and mother of 3 children slowly losing control of her life due to the devastating illness.
Alice's daughter Lydia asks her what it actually feels like to have Alzheimer's. Her response:
Well, it's not always the same. I have good days and bad days, and on my good days I can, you know, almost pass for a normal person. But on my bad days I feel like I can't find myself. I've always been so defined by my intellect, my language, my articulation and now sometimes I can see the words hanging in front of me and I can't reach them and I don't know who I am. And I don't know what I'm going to lose next. .... Thanks for asking.
Thanks for asking, indeed.
