Illustration for Oh Comely magazine #2, August 2010. Personal illustration + short text about something lost.
It seems to me that Alzheimer’s is like some sort of alternative reality where people easily lose themselves – and are unaware of it. It’s paradoxical: they lose small fragments of who they are (who they once were?) everyday, but in that reality they create within themselves, something that we perceive as missing is, for them, something that was never there.
However, we can at least take some solace from the fact that this reality becomes a cocoon, shielding them from some harsh aspects of growing old. And, as it becomes increasingly more difficult for them to recognize their daughters and sons and grandchildren, preserving memories is a task that falls on their loved ones. So I’m doing my part, for my grandmother, as delicately as I possibly can.
Hello Ricardo,
ReplyDeleteI was re reading this issue of Oh Comely this morning and once again your beautiful illustration and words simultaneously made me cry and made me smile.
I'm going to see my Grandma this afternoon and I'll be sad because she's confused and doesn't know who we are. But I'll also be happy because she's essentially quite content, and as you say, her memory loss is protecting her from what is happening around her.
Thank you for your nice interpretation.
Hey Lyndsey,
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed whenever someone tells me they're touched by something I did. It gives me hope to think I must be doing something right. And that my tiny little interpretation (or wishful thinking that the condition might not be as terrible as it feels) is doing a little bit more for people ou there than sitting in between a magazine's pages.
And thank you so much for actually going through the trouble of looking me up. It means a lot.
Ricardo