July 14, 2025
Dear Dementia,
Twenty years ago today my Grandma Marie was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. The moments around this day 20 years ago a smidge fuzzy, but the moment when Mom and Dad sat my brother and I down to tell us the news is crystal clear. The spot, the feelings, the sunlight streaming into the room.
I don’t remember being shocked. I don’t remember being angry. I don’t remember being particularly sad. After 5 years of volunteering through my school in elder care, I didn’t expect to see it enter my life just yet, or ever. I already knew I wanted to work professionally with dementia, but I didn’t exactly want it to be part of my family’s story.
The years that followed this day, as it turns out, you showed me the true character of my relatives and the community in which my grandmother lived. You protected my grandmother from elements of sorrow. You helped me see a new side of my grandmother and encouraged me to spend more time with her as I navigated my high school and college years.
Twenty years ago I started to learn what it meant to journey with you as a family member, which became one of the greatest lessons of my career and better than any certification or mode of formal education.
Until tomorrow,
Kate
