When the Mind Says Goodbye – Alzheimer’s Reading Room.
When the Mind Says Goodbye is a thoroughly touching mini-video (less than 5 minutes long with beautiful music accompaniment) chronicling a married couple’s journey as best friends in early childhood, all the way through their marriage – currently a more than 87 year-long relationship.
This couple, George and Adriana Cuevas, show us how a lack of words does not have to limit ones ability to relate to, and comfort, a loved one. I hope you will take the time to observe this loving couple as they walk through the hallways of Adriana’s memory care unit, and as they sit side-by-side with only touch and eye contact as a communicator.
It seems to work for them. How lovely that their marriage commitment lives on, even when the mind has already said goodbye.
Living: the ultimate team sport 
November 7, 2012 at 5:05 pm
What a wonderful story! It shows the power of love and commitment in the face of a terrible disease. It also demonstrates this husband’s willingness to stay with his wife’s reality and simply be present and there for her.
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November 7, 2012 at 6:35 pm
For sure, it’s a very difficult path for everyone. Yesterday I spoke at length with a husband, in his 80’s, whose intuition, with the help of his Alzheimer’s caregiver support group facilitator, realized that he/the husband/caregiver, needed to start taking care of himself. He moved his wife to a memory care unit a year ago – not a task without emotional angst – but he now can simply be her husband, not her caregiver. As it should be.
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