MARY* LIVED WITH her husband and her son’s family in Penang. Like her husband, she has dementia. As her condition progressed, Mary began to struggle with even housework, and she suddenly found herself unable to contribute in ways she once did. To her family, she was a burden; often reprimanded, corrected and yelled at for mistakes. She was eventually placed in a nursing home—in that foreign, clinical environment, Mary grew increasingly disoriented. Her condition spiralled downwards.
When I first met Mary, she was a portrait of anxiety—when she accidentally soiled herself, she panicked. I offered a calm, gentle hand and she soon relaxed, and we spent an hour chatting.
Dementia: A Disease An Aging Nation Cannot Ignore
by
Cecilia Chan
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