"Oh, look who's here!"

A friend of mine has a parent living with Alzheimer’s disease. Individuals with Alzheimer’s suffer from short and long term memory loss; they are often confused and can be at times very irritable. When her mother’s disease was diagnosed, she decided to have her mother move in with her and her family so that she could look after her. This past year, she decided to move her mother to a care home.

Today, my friend was telling me a story about when her mother first moved in with her, during her earlier stages of Alzheimer’s. My friend explained to me that when her mother first moved in with her, she had to take down all of the mirrors in her house because her mother didn’t understand that the reflection was her own. When her mother would look into the mirror she thought that there was another person in the room and she would get very upset and aggressive towards the person in the mirror. But as time went on, her mother slowly became more comfortable with the reflection. Eventually, her mother actually “became friends” with her reflection. My friend told me that sometimes, she would just leave her mother alone in the bathroom so that she could talk to herself in the mirror. One time, when my friend took her mother shopping, they happen to walk by a mirror and her mother exclaimed “Oh, look who’s here!” and pointed to her reflection; she was so excited to see her friend in the mirror that she even asked if she could stay a bit longer at the store to hang out with her reflection.

I just thought this story was kind of interesting. I think we have all had times when we don’t like the person we see in the mirror; or maybe we look in the mirror and we don’t even recognize ourselves. You can take my interpretation literally or metaphorically. This story really made me think and it has inspired me. I’ve decided that from now on, each morning when I wake up and walk to the bathroom and look in the mirror, I’m going to think: “Oh, look who’s here!” I’m going to be happy and excited to see the person that’s looking back at me from the other side. What a great way to start off the day!

Xoxo

Micah

P.S. I can only imagine the great amount of psychological, physical, and economic stress that comes to anyone who decides to take care of their sick parent. To my friend (whose identity I’ll keep anonymous): your ongoing compassion and complete selflessness is truly inspirational.