Friday, May 26, 2017

Invisible visitors

 Talking with invisible people is a typical symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. It can be spooky.

 My mother sometimes talks with invisible people. In most cases the people are my grandmother or my great-aunt. These people have already died.

 According to the textbooks about nursing Alzheimer’s disease, in these cases, we should not say:

“There is nobody there!”

Nor should we say:

“That person has already died!”

We should divert the patient’s attention from the person. Or we should let the patient talk for a while and then say:

“The person has gone, right?”

 However, in my case, I always listen seriously to my mother talking, because my mother could already be a semi-resident of the next world. It is possible to imagine she is actually talking to dead people.

 It could be a good opportunity to get information about the next world. I always ask her various questions about her invisible guests to get some crucial information, but she always answers evasively. I haven’t obtained any concrete evidence that there is a next world or not.

 Furthermore, sometimes my mother talks with a person who is still alive but not here. That gets me down.

“Mum! Be careful! That person is still alive!”

 

Picture by Izumi Kobayashi

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