Sweet Home

 

 

 My mother had Alzheimer’s disease. At night, she used to say, “I have to go back to my home.”

 Actually, I lived with her in her home. She was already in her home, but she kept saying this. My parents gave so much effort to buy the house.

 I listened to her carefully and found out that the “home” she wanted to go back to was located in the next city where she spent her childhood. She left the house a half-century ago.

 When we have Alzheimer’s disease, we want to go back to the “home” we lived in when we were children. We don’t recognize our “home” which we spent so much money on. My mother’s father passed away when she was a child. It is possible that she imagined her father waiting for her at “home.” She could have simply wanted to see her father.

 I have moved to many places many times in my life. If I have Alzheimer’s disease, which house would I want to go back to? When I was a child, I lived in a small old rented house. There were leaks whenever it rained. That house was a cheap real estate property. But I might want to go back to that house when I have Alzheimer’s disease. At least, in that house, there was a happy family.

Picture by by gttkscg