“Jonny, put your shoes on!” I yelled up the stairs to my 3-year-old son. Currently there seemed to be so much going on.

“Mommy, I want a snack. Can I have an apple cut up?” That was Millie, the 5-year-old. How can I say no? We rushed through breakfast because my alarm had gone off late.

Maybe I should rewind a little.

…

I woke up to Jonny poking my face with sticky fingers; my alarm softly j...

It starts small;

Consumes all.

In the end

Your will bends.

You create,

Then it takes.

Picture view—

Future you.

Love and hate,

Call it fate....

I knew it would come to this.

The end was always in sight.

My mind tried to steal a kiss,

But try as hard as I might,

My memory was amiss.

My days blur into the nights.

Confusion steals me away;

Resistance makes me more weak.

When a short and simple day

Seems more and more like a week.

I chase my memories for

Familiar things to seek.

Dementia has wrecked my life,

And seems to wreck others’ too...

What is home? Is it a place or a feeling? Is it someone special? I am still rediscovering what it means to me. Home used to mean the place where I grew up in the rural Midwest. It wasn’t a fancy house, but I can still remember how the warm afternoon light would shine through the living room windows. I can still smell the kitchen when my mom would make supper in the summer.

It’s been 7 years now ...

There I was in the checkout line. I only had a few essential items in hand but no self-checkouts were open. In front of me was an old woman—probably close to 80 years old. She had a walker with only two items in the small basket attached to the front. I found myself baffled that she had gone out of her way to buy a small bouquet of flowers and a sympathy card. Who could that be for in her life? As...