My first meeting with Alzheimer’s

In 1988, I was a freshman at university. During the summer vacation I travelled in east Japan by bicycle.

When I approached TOYAMA prefecture, I knew a famous annual festival would be held in YATSUO town on that day. The name of the festival was KAZENOBON. All the residents of the town become traditional dancers that night.

I thought:

“I want see the festival. If I hurry, I can get to YATSUO tonight. I can sleep at YATSUO station after the festival. ”

 

Then I arrived. But I had totally misunderstood the festival. I had not realized that KAZENOBON is a dancing-all-night festival. YATSUO station was very crowded. There were no place to sleep and no silence to sleep. There was no “after the festival” until the morning. I was at a loss with my bicycle.

An old gentleman asked me:

“Where are you from?”

I answered:

“I am from NAGOYA.”

“You can stay at my house.”

The old gentleman invited me to his house.

 The old gentleman seemed to live alone. The house looked as though it used to be a barber’s.

 

 He prepared a bath for me. After taking the bath I was surprised.

 There were about ten guys wearing traditional dancing costume in the house. They were waiting for me. They glared at me. They asked me some questions. I can’t remember what they said. I just wondered, “Why are these people gathered in the old gentleman’s at night? What strange people!”

 

Recently, I came to realize what was happening that night.

 

The old gentleman was in an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease. I was eighteen years old. I didn’t even know about Alzheimer’s disease. I just thought he was the kind of man who repeatedly says the same things. Some people do that. But it was not like that.

 

Just like my grand aunt and my mother, he was being protected by his family, friends and neighbors, and I had happened to come into his house.

When people looked at the old gentleman and me in the house, they might have thought:

“A fishy stranger is trespassing!”

“The stranger has chosen the busy festival night for stealing or fraud!”

 “What an evil guy!”

 

This is why about ten strong guys were waiting for me at the old gentleman’s house. They had gathered to judge me. I can’t remember how I answered their questions but maybe they trusted me after the conversation. I was allowed to stay at the old gentleman’s house that night.

 

If I had answered wrongly, they might have beaten me up. The people in YATSUO are all well-trained in synchronized dancing. They are also strong enough to dance all night. If I had been an evil person, I would have been beaten up by these strong people. They would have been happy to band together to beat me up.

 

Next morning, the old gentleman served me breakfast. My next goal was to go to the next prefecture, ISHIKAWA. He told me the way to ISHIKAWA over and over and again. I listened over and over again.

 

A few years after that incident, I sent a new-years card to the old gentleman. But one day a member of the old gentleman’s family called me and said:

“We decided to put him in a welfare facility for the elderly. So it is not necessary to send us a new-year card.”

 I knew his family, friends and neighbors had done did their best. There was a limit to what they could do for Alzheimer’s disease.

 

The limit will also affect us. Someday I have to put my mother in a welfare facility for the elderly.

 

Photo by Takataro