“Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working
marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our
ears can hear the voices of our loved ones.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
I lost my sister and mother to variations of Alzheimer’s
disease – early and late onset respectively.
Nancy drifted into the abyss in a short four years, her
final breath at the too early age of 62. Mother languished for more than a
decade in the increasing darkness that pulled the life out of her with the
unrelenting power of the receding lunar tides. Her final breath came at the age
of 93.
The commonality between the two, was increasing blackness into
which they fell with a deadly acceleration that did not plateau at 32 feet per
second, per second (gravity’s pull).
Alzheimer’s is hard because it seems the mind becomes
trapped in loops of repeated thought, simultaneously erased once spoken…each
time retold as though it were the first.
One cannot predict any of this, but one can cherish and love
those for whom they deeply care whilst they are still in their presence.
A friend from high school shared a video with me, herewith
retold.
Picture the setting in your mind’s eye as the story unfolds.
Short film…
[Open] An old fellow (70ish) sitting on bench under shade of
large tree with his son (late 30s) in the backyard of a large, old stone home…Old man
stares forward; son reads newspaper.
A small bird makes an appearance; the dialogue begins:
OLD MAN
“What is that?”
Looking up from briefly from the paper, glancing at old man:
SON
“A sparrow.”
A few moments later the bird sings:
OLD MAN
“What is that?”
Shaking the paper for emphasis and looking at old man:
SON
“I just told you
father, a sparrow!”
Cut to bird flying to the branch of beautiful green leafed maple
tree and then to the ground, still singing.
Cut to old man continuing to stare forward:
OLD MAN
“What is that?”
Exasperated and now clearly distracted:
SON
“A sparrow father, a sparrow”
Increased emphasis and stern look spells word:
SON
“S-P-A-R-R-O-W!”
Old man still staring forward.
OLD MAN
“What is that?”
The son angrily responds:
SON
“Why are you doing this?
I told you so many times,
it’s a sparrow!! Can’t you get
it!?”
Silently, old man gets up from bench turns 180 degrees to
the right and begins to walk away on stone path from bench.
SON
“Where are you
going?”
Old man climbs stairs and disappears into house leaving an
annoyed, frustrated son sitting alone.
Cut to scene a few minutes later:
Father returns with a book in hand and sits back down on
bench. He thumbs through the pages until he finds a particular place and hands book
to son, pointing to a particular passage.
Son begins to silently read:
OLD MAN
“Loud”
Son reads aloud:
SON
“Today, my youngest son, who
a few days ago turned three, was
sitting with me at the park when
a sparrow sat in front of us.”
“My son asked me 21 times what
it was and I answered 21 times
that
it was [turning the page] a sparrow.”
“I hugged him every single time
he asked me the same question.
Again and again without getting
mad, feeling affection for my
innocent little boy.”
Young man weeps, reaches for father…hugs and kisses him.
Fade to black.
The Long view?
Love ‘em while you got ‘em...then love ‘em ‘til YOU are done!
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