The last couple of days I have been filming the Communities in Control Conference - which I do each year - and the last speaker was Ita Buttrose, who is, amongst other things president of Alzheimer’s Australia. She spoke about the need to educate people about how to support people with dementia, in and as part of society.
My
mother and grand mother both lived the last years of their lives in this
condition. My mother passed away a few years ago in a psycho geriatric nursing
home in New Zealand with me only able to visit her for a week at a time a year
or two apart, and totally unable to emotionally deal with her condition.
Recently
a good friend of mine passed away in similar circumstances. I had lost touch
with him over the last three years mainly because I was unable to deal with his
condition.
I wrote this poem on reflection of this and other things at the conference.......................
A Prayer
Oh Lord I beseech thee
That with thy beneficent mercy
You look upon your people, all people
The lost, the lonely
The mad, the angry
The hurt, and the sad
The winners, the losers
The strange and the happy
The correct and the less so
The wrong, the right, and the left
And the victims in the middle
And teach us to forgive our own trespasses
And those of our neighbor
And our crazy old mothers and grandmothers
And ourselves
Lost in the fear
Of going slowly nuts in a nursing home
Incontinent and unable to remember
Which planet we are on
And what universe we are in
Certain that everything we try
To make the world better
Is in vain
And dust and dirt
Is all that will remain
After we are gone
Like the dinosaurs
Frozen in cold hard stone
A reminder to those that come after
That the more powerful your are
The more extinct you will become
