("Life Goes on and On")
What would Mr. Atlas say to the enormous
population who have aging parents in the throes of dementia or
Alzheimer's? Where does one find the joy or benefit in watching the
deterioration?
I am troubled as I watch a generation outliving their funds and
their fun. For too many, they hang on physically and financially in a
world they only see from the periphery. Mr. Atlas is very fortunate that
he has a mom who still has the capacity to understand and enjoy what
life has to offer.
I hope in the future that we treat the issue of the extension and
the concurrent diminution of existence, with the seriousness and respect
it deserves. I lost my Dad 32 years ago and I have been forever
grateful to have had the love and support of my mom for all this time.
Yet for more than half a decade, she has struggled to maintain her ever
more tenuous hold on the world. Even now, when I take her to lunch or
dinner several times a week, she insists on paying though she can't
find her wallet, or read the check, or even cut her food. There is
beauty and tragedy in this ritual, and it is this dichotomy that so
many of us fight to understand.
2 comments:
As always, so well expressed. Pls. send this along to the Times.
Beautifully said... so sad but true...
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