Alzheimer’s: Know the Signs #6—New Problems with Words in Speaking or Writing

Excerpt from “Indelible” (memoir in progress):

Jim began to have difficulty writing. He would write letters but they wouldn’t make up words. Most of the time, the combination was close enough that I knew what he meant.

I wanted him to feel useful and to “exercise his brain.” One morning, I was washing the breakfast dishes and Jim was sitting at the table.

“Honey, would you make a grocery list for me?” I nodded toward the pad and pen I’d placed on the table. “We need paper towels,” I said.

He picked up the pen and wrote on the notepad. “We need milk,” I said. He set the pen down and said, “I don’t want to.”

He walked out of the room, and I sat down to finish the list. On the paper, he had printed, “taper powels.”

Later he picked up the list and studied it carefully. “I wonder why I spelled ‘paper towels’ that way,” he said.

Copyright © November 2016 by L.S. Fisher

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