average intelligence quotient
Dear Allan,
you have to remember that people such as Iris Murdoch the successful author, have been plagued with this unkind disease. Have you seen the film Iris?
I recommend you do...........I think it's very sensitively done.
My mother thinks she is stupid, this is a woman who has studied art in Edinburgh, able to recite lots of Robert Burns' poetry, performed Shakespeare in an albeit amateur level.
Played golf (18 holes) when she was 80 (in a foursome) and won!!
made people laugh with her wit and way with words.....Yes, I find that often people who have had a way with words, I don't know, maybe they've got this worry inside them or fear of getting old - and somehow they bury their heads in the sand, so to speak, or if somebody they love dies, they just don't want to know and begin to lose interest in everything......... Oh, I'm not sure but what I AM
sure of is that an intelligent , interesting, loving person like my mother was one of the unfortunate people that this disease took as its victim.
Sometimes drink (alcohol) in large quantities over a long period of time, I believe , can affect your memory, it's like when you've drunk too much one night and the next day you don't remember what you said or did ........... . So I reckon too much drink can't help your memory but whether it can cause it is another thing. Rita Hayworth was the person who triggered the gun regarding this disease, as she would dance around her garden in drunken stupors and in the end she became ill with Alzheimers........... .
I certainly don't think it's to do with a lack of intelligence, my mother is living proof of that, though she has Vascular Dementia only.
The sad thing is when somebody artistic like her no longer wishes to smell a rose never mind draw one or paint one. I tried to get her interested in painting again, maybe I didn't persist too much, but we used to do watercolour paintings together in our family kitchen........but when I suggested in she was already having serious problems with her memory and said , NO, No, I don't want to do that. And that was that....
My mother said to me when she was in the Nursing Home, These poor men (two of the inmates who are there and quite ill) "What can I do to help them?" still wanting to help, incredible, where there's a will there's a way, eh??
she used to say the words of the song, If I can help somebody going down the road, then my living shall not be in vain..
Sorry if I've rambled on a bit, Alan, but I just want you to think positively and keep jotting down notes, and putting up reminder stickers (I do that , just in case!!)
All the best,
mailife49