Early-onset Pain
CAREGIVER SUGGESTIONS
Navigating the Pain of Early-Onset Dementia: Finding Comfort
All families dealing with dementia feel pain, but early-onset dementia (before age 65) is particularly devastating. Barbara Gray’s poem gives at least a touch of comfort.
IT REALLY ISN’T ME
Remember,
as we began our life together,
with all the
promises to be...
To welcome life’s challenges
as a team...
just you and me?
Little did we know
the wave of difficulty
when aging actually began
to change what we would see.
So if I get cantankerous
or make difficult demands,
please understand that
life has moved
way out of our shared hands.
We see it all around us
when forces not our own
make kindness seem to go away
and leave us each alone.
It’s a question without answers
never recognized before.
I just don’t want you feeling
that you must still endure.
Recognize it isn’t me
but something in my brain
that’s turning us to strangers
and creating so much pain.
So let’s decide right now
that if I turn away,
I really hope that you
start heading your own way.
No promises are broken.
It’s alright to be free.
Remember what I told you,
“It really isn’t me.”
© Barbara Wood Gray