I shall
never forget the look in her eyes,
the woman
who suffered from Alzheimer’s
in the
nursing home.
She was not
all that old as I recall, early seven-
ties
perhaps, but some diseases have no respect
for age.
She was
white-headed with gentle yet puzzled
blue eyes.
One could see that they were searching
for answers to
some Great Dark Mystery.
All was gone,
lost in a fog which would never lift
again. I was
present one day when her husband of
forty-years came
to visit.
Although he
was caring and attentive, trying his
best to be reassuring,
one could easily sense the
enormous weight
of his grieving at her loss.
When their
time together had ended, and it was
time for him
to go, it would be as if they had met
for the
first time and the last.
Over and
again with each ensuing visit there had to
be another
leaving, always a new beginning and
yet another
end.
This time the woman in
the nursing home turned to
me with the calm and
joyful blue-eyed smile of having
fallen in love for
the very first time. And shyly she
whispered to me, “He was a very nice man.”
whispered to me, “He was a very nice man.”
Chris
Hanch 6-30-15
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