Thursday, November 24, 2016

Alzheimer’s: Know the Signs #3—Difficulty completing familiar tasks


Alzheimer’s: Know the Signs  #3—Difficulty completing familiar tasks

Memory lapses did not convince me that Jim had dementia, but when he began to have problems doing things he had always done, I knew something was terribly wrong.

Jim had played a guitar from the time he was a child. One morning, he asked me to tune his guitar. Jim, the guy with the musical expertise of a lifetime and perfect pitch, asked tone-deaf me to tune his guitar.

Excerpt from “Indelible” (memoir in progress):  Jim used to pick up his guitar and record audio and video tapes for his relatives in Oregon. When he finished a tape, he would write their name on it and set it aside. One day, his mom saw Jim put something in our mailbox which was in front of her house next door. After he put the object in the box, he raised the flag.

Curious to see what Jim was mailing, she opened the mailbox after he went home. It was an audio tape. Just a tape, not in an envelope or addressed. He wanted to send it to his cousin Leroy, so he put it in the mailbox.

Copyright © November 2016 by L.S. Fisher

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