Jessica R McDuffie

Glenda's Safari

Imagine a frail older lady about 89, long white hair she is almost as thin as bones. Suffers from vascular dementia and lives her life on repeat every day, confined to a locked memory care unit for the rest of it. She can still do many things on her own but her mind wanders and brings her back to a time that was the hardest for her. The second she wakes up she’s screaming and calling for her husband. Her husband passed away years prior to this but she doesn’t know, she can’t understand or comprehend and grasp the idea that he’s gone. Every day, when she realizes he’s gone, this lady wanders screaming endlessly for him. She does have moments when she is eating or doing other things where she’s not thinking about him and can go about 10, sometimes only 15 minutes where she’s not calling his name. This is how she lives her life now, all day, every day, until she was brought to my class.