Saturday, July 30, 2005

A quick tale 54

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‘I won’t be a burden on any of you. One morning you will wake up and find me gone’ he used to say to his family. But that was when he was younger and healthier and was only in the early stages of dementia. He slid down the slope rapidly in the following years and lost control of his life along with that of his bowels. They took him to expensive hospitals, put him on imported medication and employed someone to clean up after him. They even celebrated his 80th birthday with great fanfare. By then he could no longer remember his resolve to die painlessly.

5 comments:

Lavanya said...

Painful to see painful death.

Maven said...

Perhaps in a sense, the dementia is a blessing, to him, in the sense that he cannot actualize/realize what is happening to his body, and who he has become?

Anonymous said...

Just the thing I'm afraid of for myself... to unknowingly be a burden on others.

Anonymous said...

You mean 'I won't be' :)

Unknown said...

Sad