In the eyes of many others, sometimes even the eyes of care-partners, I am seen as less than a complete someone. Just because my memory sometimes fails me, just because my cognitive abilities some seem to slip, just because I don’t always think like you do, nor do I remember as much or how human you do –
Please, please know that in my own eyes, and I hope your eyes, I am still a whole and complete someone. I am still me. I am still Grandpa, and Dad, a friend, and whole and a complete Being. I am in my mind still and have always been a complete person.
I am not becoming any less a person simply because I cannot remember like you, talk you do, or think as you do. I know many of you want me to be who I was yesterday, or last year, or the last time they saw me, but I cannot be.
I have ceased looking back over my shoulder at who I was, and now spend most of my time working on who I am, today!
About Dr. Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor has been living with the symptoms of dementia for more than eight years. He is the author of Alzheimer's from the Inside Out.
