NOT ALL MEMORY FADES AWAY ONE MUST TRY HARDER

The loss of memory from dementia or Alzheimer's is not all the same. Recent memories are the first lost and often very annoying. Where did I park the car? What was it I came shopping for? Did I take my tablets? Older memories often remain and the extraordinary thing is that some get stronger and clearer and forgotten things often bob to the surface. Even long forgotten languages that we once spoke may come back more fluently and there have been many instances where Alzheimer's patients begin to speak almost all the time in some long forgotten tongue. For caregivers, it is very useful to listen to the patient's stories from the past. The good things of the past can often be mentioned by the caregiver to divert the loved ones intentions to carry out some unsuitable or even impossible objective, such as perhaps visiting a long deceased relative. Personally, I am still in the early stages of dementia and my memory loss s just a drip a day. I still write and read although when writing I sometimes struggle to remember a forgotten word. However, I have discovered that if I focus, the word will often come back to me. I have also found that remembering names can improve if I make an effort to remember when told the persons name. This has led me to believe that memory retention can be improved with effort. So as teacher said to most of us all those years ago; 'Must try harder!' We have a sunny day in Paarl today, although it is a little cool, but we are not quite in Spring yet so we are grateful.It may be a lunch in the garden day. I have had a good week, with no discernible extra memory loss or cognitive deterioration, although the revious losses cannot be reversed. An example this week was that I put my porridge on the gas cooker and became absorbed in something else when suddenly the smoke alarm went off. This was a timely warning, but our parrot has learned to copy this noise and so he joined in and the decibals were enogh to wake the dead or make a man lose his hearing. The dogs are well and Boysie watched longingly as I cleaned the pool this week. He misses our swimming and to encourage me he threw in a plastic flower pot and it was all that I could do to restrain him from jumping in. The water is of course extremely cold and like myself Boysie is getting on a bit. Julian caught a bad dose of flu, despite having had an inoculation some months ago. One of our girls who works with Julian in the dress making shop also caught it and I, desperate to not be next took to wearing a face mask. In addition, I told Julian than when she comes neae she must ring a bell like the Leppers used to do and chant; 'Unclean, unclean.'She was not amused. David Barnato. Paarl. South Africa