When you love someone with dementia – Rebecca Mason Law, LLC

When you love someone with dementia, you lose the same person twice.

As defined by the Mayo Clinic, Dementia is a group of symptoms that affect memory, thinking, and social abilities. Several different diseases cause dementia Alzheimer’s is one of the most common and well-known forms of dementia.

At Rebecca Mason Law, we counsel many clients through the heartbreaking process of losing a loved one to dementia. It is one of the most difficult things a family can experience.

The early stages are some of the hardest as you watch your loved one’s memory fade in and out. In the beginning, many struggle with knowing their memory is fading and that there is nothing they can do to stop it. Some become belligerent and violent. While others withdraw.

As dementia progresses, the brain slowly dies. Many come to a point where they cannot recognize their loved ones.

My grandma suffered from dementia. Near the end of her life, she had no idea who I was — but she could recite word for word the commencement speech she gave to her 8^th grade class nearly 80 years prior. She would ask me why her grandchildren never visited her.

It is hard. There is no fix and no easy way to get through Dementia. You grieve when they forget who you are. You grieve every time they don’t remember your face, every time you have to reintroduce yourself, every time have a conversation with your loved one about yourself as if you are not you. And again when they physically die.

By Rebecca Mason