July 8, 2025
Dear Dementia,
You know no one wants you? Right? Yet, here you are, the uninvited houseguest that never leaves. Today I heard stories about how people fear you. How they don’t understand you. And, how they never want to meet you.
Today was not a once in a hundred years conversation. It is the most common of conversations that mention your name. Sometimes on a daily basis, I hear about how people dislike you and/or fear you. And while many are working to change the narrative of you it doesn’t change the facts of how much you are unwanted.
Is that all you are? Unwanted. I think not. But it is hard to think of anything else when living I the anticipation of a possible visit from you. It is hard to talk about the “gifts of dementia” without sounding frilly or worse incentive or distant. It is hard to balance your unwanted nature with the possibilities of something new that, while not what one had hoped, something that is still good.
Dementia, you can bring surprises that bring good into our lives through the darkness and unknowns. I hope I am able to help at least a handful of people see that.
Until tomorrow,
Kate
