It will always be in my mind, 

Never will I forget that moment

When the words I thought I would never have to hear

Came out of my mother’s mouth.

Losing someone who means so much to you is like being tumbled around in the ocean’s riptide, 

Every motion and thought is so painful.

 

From that minute on, 

I knew that my grandma would never be the same person, 

I knew that every memory we had together would slowly escape her mind, 

I knew that soon she would barely be able to identify me, 

I knew that shortly she wouldn’t even know how to talk, 

I knew that this was slowly killing her, 

I knew that she had this fatal disease.

 

I watched her enter a whole new environment,

The nursing home, the scent of old people,

Each wall the same, staring at you the same way, day after day,

The same people everyday,

The food; mushy and gross,

I could not imagine this ever happening.

 

I visit her week after week.

Some days she has a huge grin on her face, 

And all she wants to do is communicate with everyone, 

But she can not.

Some days she sits in her wheelchair and stares, 

Her bright blue eyes like the sky on a clear day, so glossy, 

As if she recognizes who I am, but nothing else.

Every time I visit her, each memory we have had together flashes through my own, 

All her favorite foods, the special places we would go together.

She was one of those people you could talk to for hours,

It never crossed my mind that something this tragic could happen,

It never hit me that I would miss my grandmother so much,

I never thought my grandmother would suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.