You say, how am I doing? Well, I'm really glad you asked!
I cannot tell you, graphically, just how great a task
that life has laid before me. It's a path I haven't trod.
But one thing I am sure of: I must hold onto God!
I'm not afraid of dying, for I know what lies ahead
within the realms eternal, I'll live, I won't be dead!
I am afraid of living in a body, uncontrolled
I hate to be a burden of these ones whom I love so.
When I want to speak, words jumble and tumble out all wrong.
When I seek to move, I fumble and go where I don't belong
Confusion is my partner: What's that, you say? Just go away!
I just don't understand! Please come to me with tenderness...
please calm my trembling hands...
I don't remember where I've been, what I've done, or why
My mind and vision clouded, it's hard to even try.
Yet try I must-continually-to help my loved ones see
Beneath all this chaotic mess: I'm still myself--
I'M ME !!!.

Copyright © 1996 Dorothy Womack
Used with permission of the author.

Dorothy's mother died the same year mine did,
five months later in September 1996. Dorothy
wrote this poem in October 1998 in response to
many emails she has received about what it is like
having a mother with Alzheimers. This beautiful
poem expresess something else we need to think about--
what it is like for the person with Alzheimer's.
Dorothy's book Passage into Paradise is on her
website at: http://www.geocities.com/womack47/passage.html
and now is available from iUniverse as well, along with Alzheimer's Angels,
her book of poems, and three other books (see below).
Dorothy is a writer for http://www.caregiver.com/
and her articles can also be found in the
Alzheimer's Articles section of A Year to Remember.
Email Dorothy at: womack47@charter.net
You can find all of Dorothy's books by clicking on the covers below: