tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post5331851597098479076..comments2023-05-24T23:33:57.516+10:00Comments on My Unwelcome Stranger: Illusion, truth and reality (Part 2)Denis Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-60079800026822190962012-12-16T14:32:46.225+11:002012-12-16T14:32:46.225+11:00Thanks, Ros. These are wise words. It is hard for ...Thanks, Ros. These are wise words. It is hard for me to know whether she felt terror or anguish when she locked her consciousness away from most of the world and lived in a past before I was born. But I am sure others would be in that dreadful position – of losing control over their lives while still mentally with it enough to know what was going on about them.<br /><br />I agree with you fully about sudden death amongst the old who are irremediably losing their health and the terminally ill who have lost or are close to losing an acceptable quality of life. I feel some sense of joy for them at their good fortune, not to have to go through all the traumas being kept alive have in store for them - and having at last to go through it anyway.<br /><br />Another view is that of the advantages for the sufferer of 'golden dementia' – maybe not so much fun for the carer, of course. As a friend wrote to me about his father:<br /><br /><i>I have been retired for six years, having started by taking leave to become my father Peter's carer. He slipped out of camp nearly two years ago, with the sort of dementia I hope to get, a 'golden dementia' in which he was having an absolutely lovely time; everything around him was utter chaos, but, hey, things were great for him.</i> <br /><br />Once I wrote in a posting something that could be interpreted as that no matter what I hoped the last thing to go was my mind. I wouldn't want that to be the understanding. If 'no-matter-what' means dipping below an acceptable quality of life with no reasonable prospect of improving it, then that was never my intention. Now where is that posting?<br />Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-19180782852253703532012-12-14T17:57:18.660+11:002012-12-14T17:57:18.660+11:00The circumstances of this phase of life your Mum h...The circumstances of this phase of life your Mum had to endure is, in my experience as a daughter, and as a worker in Aged Care, the hardest part of being human. I fear it - I think we all do. We all want to depart this earth with our mind and our self-hood, intact, whole, recognisable. <br /><br />To live a full, lucid, and intellectually engaged life is the best part of being alive, I reckon. I can only guess at the terror, the anguish and the confusion someone in your Mum's position experiences. Not easy.<br /><br />All any of us can hope for at the end is that, like your mother had, there are enough patient and compassionate people around to ease our path, and protect us from the worst of the medical system, and from the worst our illness(es) dish up for us to live through.<br /><br />When an older person, with their sense of self intact, dies suddenly e.g. heart attack, I am deeply relieved for them. It is what I would want for myself....and more importantly...for my beloved family to live with when it is my end-time.<br />Roshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13339472107640597921noreply@blogger.com