Alzheimer's Disease

The nursing home called again last night.
She had crawled into bed with a strange man
thinking he was her lover from years' past.

Last week she awakened all the residents at two in the morning
serving them coffee
and telling them to rise and shine.
"The ship is arriving at port!
There's a full day ahead!"

She told me on Thursday that she was pregnant again
at eighty-three years of age.
Strange men had held her down
while a nurse inserted a tiny fetus.
Now the child grew within her.
She's thinking of a lawsuit because she was violated.
No one had asked her permission.

My memories of Charlene have never been bizarre.
smart and wily
salty and adventurous
The Charlene I knew would be horrified at her current state of affairs!

Now she wastes away
mentally
and physically.

What will we remember after Alzheimer's is long forgotten?