Urban Myths--Eurydice

“Mrs Dice’s mind is gone. Alzheimer’s. Poor dear. But she’s no trouble to anyone. Usually she sits all day in the lounge. Sometimes she watches the other patients walking about, but mostly she nods her head and babbles to someone only she can see. You can’t make any sense of what she’s saying.

“Mr Dice comes to visit once a week. He tries to talk with her, and she just smiles and asks him who he is. He told me they’ve been married over sixty years. Imagine that—sixty years and she doesn’t even know who he is.

“The only thing that attracts her attention is music. There’s a piano in the lounge, and Mr Dice plays it sometimes. Mostly old songs, dance music, that sort of thing. She always perks up when she hears him playing. She tries to sing along, but she forgets the words. But it makes her happy. You can see what she used to be like—when she still had her mind, I mean.

“She told him once that her husband plays the piano. ‘My Arthur plays,’ she said. ‘He’s ever so talented.’ You could see how that hurt him.”