‘Where is your home?’

By Rhiannonw

Mon, 03 Apr 2017
  • 2645 reads
6 comments
 

Together, they entered a home –
dementia for him had now come.
She needn’t have gone, but she knew,
was certain the right thing to do,
as he needed her more, was to stay
close by, as his mind slipped away.

Awaking one day in his chair,
he looked, and his wife wasn’t there
– she hadn’t gone far from his side –
but in his confusion, he cried,
“I need to go home! Yes, I must”,’
in troubled anxiety, fussed.
‘And where is your home?’ he was asked.
He pondered, no thought of a place,
but into his mind came a face
– “Where my wife is! that’s home, where I rest!”
he smiled, was no longer distressed.

 

Certificate U
Poem
Families
Love

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

Relationships in dementia can be so complicated, but sometimes there are lovely moments, like this. 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks. Also what the person is really thinking isn't easy to know, the words don't always come out right, and remembered phrases slip out in an unconnected way. We used to have to interpret for my in-laws, who had always had a rather argumentative, highly-strung and stormy relationship, but we could understand the husband's meaning where his wife couldn't - and also she couldn't hear well.

This true tale is of another couple. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

A poingnant poem which many of us worry about suffering in older age. It makes life so much easier when there are understanding people around.

Well told.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, Jenny. It shows that a sense and appreciation lasts even when communication difficult, and our character is the same - so, as I remember a preacher saying years ago to ask God to help you prepare your character and heart so you won't be too much trouble in old age!

But this story was a beautiful picture of sincere and sacrificial love, I felt. Actually, I gather he had been a very difficult man in early marriage, and resented her becoming a Christian, but once helped gather wood at a children's Christian meeting, and listened to the message outside the tent, and couldn't help embracing it and he and their marriage was transformed from then. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Rhiannon this is a great piece of loving reality.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, Elsie, yes, heart-warming, isn't it? Rhiannon