When memories are all we have

So many times in life we feel overwhelmed by life…whether it is attempting to implement a strategic plan at work, meeting deadlines for studies, making sure that the kids are at school on time, trying to think of something new every night for supper, keeping up with the Jones or the sweet and sour relationships of those who come in and out of our lives.

We already in the third month of the year and 99 days closer to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Where has time gone? Life happens so fast…and before you know it you sitting in the old age home.

I look back on my youthful life as those age around me, living in the denial that old age will never happen to me. My grand father was recently diagnosed with advanced stage of Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's disease is the progressive degeneration of the brain affecting memory, thinking, behaviour and emotion. Symptoms may include: loss of memory, difficulty in finding the right words or understanding what people are saying, difficulty in performing previously routine tasks and personality and mood changes

It saddens me to see someone who was once always cheerful, cracking a joke, had his nose in a book or watching a documentary to a man whose mind seems so far away. I now watch him hymn as he struggles to put sentences together. I see how disorientated he is when he cannot remember where he is or what his purpose was of being in a particular room.

It makes me think that life is somewhat cruel, cause at old age when sickly and frail…memories are all you have to get you through those trying times before you hit those Pearly Gates. Memories of active times, friends and family (some of which you have now out-lived). In my opinion, it is probably one of the worst ways to go…

Despite it all, I am grateful and grounded, I ask that I never forget how precious life is and to not take for granted that my memories will last forever…

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. ~Author Unknown