Of Death, dementia and commitment

Every Sunday morning when I wake up, I always play praise and worship songs either on my CD player or the radio in preparation before I go to church, but this morning I happened to tune in to a station interviewing Naomi Feil, the founder of Validation Training Institute. When Naomi was asked how people prepare for dementia, she said: "Get your act together now, if you have unforgiveness towards someone, forgive. If you have unresolved issues in your life, you need to resolve it now." Of course it's not that simple, but she said that what old people say or do when they have dementia is largely related to what happened to that person when they were young.

Then I stopped by the mall on the way home from church and I saw this elderly couple holding hands, both of them looked very frail, but the wife was paralyzed on her left side with her left hand badly atrophied. The husband was gently leading her as she was walking very slow and without any expression on her face. I was deeply touched by it and I thought that's how marriage should be like. I always felt that marriage is not about love, but commitment - we don't always stay in love, but we have to stay committed. When we're younger and in love, we hold hands so we don't kill each other then when we get old, we hold hands so we don't fall. Death, dementia and commitment - hard topic but we have to address it.


Video courtesy:danemcg