Chapter 24

Alzheimer disease is the most frequent type of dementia in North America and Western Europe. My one sister helps out at an elderly nursing home back at in my hometown. It's interesting and upsetting to witness this disease. There are people from all the stages from confusion to death. There are less people in the slightly confused stage since that is just the beginning. She knows this one lady who constantly tells her the same things. She always says "respect your body or nobody else will." then goes on a rant about young men nowadays. My sister finds it funny to listen to at first. She also has her mind set on people from certain areas and background as well as tattoos, tanning, and dying hair. It's cute that she tries to help her out and guide her in life. However, she will tell my sister these things every day, or just about. It comes up frequently. I'm not sure what stage this is, or if it is Alzheimer's at all. But I do know that she is set on it. She has her values and forgets that she tells my sister the same thing every day. She also tells her stories from her past. This is where it confuses me. I thought people with Alzheimer's disease have trouble putting together things from their past. Like in the Notebook, the main character Noah reads the story of his and this girl Allies love and how it started. In the beginning of the movie, she doesn't recognize who he is. She believes it is this man who is reading her a story. She also met her children and couldn't tell who they were. Throughout the movie, she realizes how familiar the story sounds to her. She recognizes her husband for a brief period of time, then it goes into panic and forgets everything that has happened. My sister said she hasn't dealt with extreme cases like this before but is interested to see if this is similar to how people with Alzheimer's act in real life.