Manifest What Remains
Many of my family members suffered with dementia. It manifested late in life. What’s really important to me are the good memories which remain. The funny mistakes, the oops. Laughing so hard we snort beverages out our noses.
The good memories stay, the bad ones drift away.
My father disappeared through Alzheimer’s Disease. He no longer remembered my sisters or me. While he lived, he could still repeat his favorite stanza of a nursery rhyme.
“Wire, briar, limberlock ,
Three geese in a flock ,
One flew east,
One flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”
The last line becoming the title of the book and movie, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
A fitting rhyme for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease.
When my father left our family, his not remembering me faded. What remains: Blowing bubbles in our milkshakes, fishing on the open ocean and puking up our lunches—and reciting nursery rhymes.
At the end of your life, what will you remember? Will you remember the things that made you laugh? Will you remember the things that made you cry? Will you remember the ones you love? Will you look back with regret, with pride, with joy?
What will you find within yourself?
“Wire, briar, limberlock
Three geese in a flock One flew east,
One flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”
Manifest what remains.