Dementia
Help me to remember
What I forget each day.
Don't let the dementia
Take my memories away.
Published: November 2019
November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. It was first established by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. At that time, less than two million people suffered from the disease. It has now grown to over five million patients in the United States alone. Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there are treatments that help slow down the progression of the disease.
The Alzheimer’s Association has wonderful resources on their website about signs of Alzheimer’s, tips for living with the disease, help for caregivers, information on research and getting involved with support groups.
Whether you have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or have a loved one fighting this disease, we hope these poems will remind you that you are not facing this alone.
November is also National Family Caregivers Month. There are millions of people who care for their loved ones. These people selflessly make sacrifices to care for those with special needs, chronic illnesses, disabilities, and aging bodies and minds. This month is a time to honor family caregivers and give them the support they need.
Be sure to check out our other Aging Poems.
Help me to remember
What I forget each day.
Don't let the dementia
Take my memories away.
My friends Dad has this. She would love this poem.
in Aging Poems
I see the sadness in your eyes,
The times that you are knowing
What's happening to your wondrous mind,
The symptoms you are showing.
For the first time in my life I came face to face with the struggle of Dementia. My mother was quiet about the reality of her daily life caring for the man she married over 60 years ago. She...
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Your time has come to leave us, Mum.
Dad called you back to him.
The ballroom floor is ready
For your dancing to begin.
in Dying Poems
When dementia creeps in through the back door,
Loving is needed, like never before...
An expressionless face, an empty heart,
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My mind is not what it once was:
wilting like a rose.
One thing you must remember:
this is not the life I chose.
Sometimes you just NEED a break. My parents' assisted living center is short on staff, and I'm trying to be there more. Last night I fed them BOTH and then (with my horrible back with tumors...
The clarity of my mind has faded.
Those vibrant thoughts, slowly washed away.
Memories once so strong, are now so distant.
Names of those I held so dear, escape me now.
I and (I'm guessing many hundreds of thousands of) others know exactly what you mean first-hand.
When the time came again to visit her there,
He'd feel that dark sense of despair.
He could already picture her sweet, gentle face,
Marred by that sad, empty stare.
My fiance and the love of my life had passed from cancer one year ago. My heart is forever scared, but I must go on with my life and raise my four-year-old daughter.
She resides in a home, sits in a chair,
Nothing to bother her, make her worry or care.
Caretakers to help her wash and dress,
Doing all that they can not to cause her distress.
Hello. I can so relate to what you have said. and of course more than what you have said. My Dad got dementia when he was 83. He wouldn't accept that he needed help and I would take weeks...
in Father Poems
I remember the times
You'd flip me onto your shoulder
Freefalling skyward
Taller, older
This poem so reminds me of the relationship my Daddy and I had. He had a major surgery in 1971 and because of that and the effects of the anesthesia, his decline began. It took a while for us...
She lovingly handles
her mother with care
as she washes and curls
and fixes her hair.
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