Dementia ~ A sad memory of a dear old friend abused for having dementia

~ Posted: 1 May 2016 ~
 
A friend posted this picture quote above on Facebook today from the Vince Zangaro‎Alzheimer's Music Fest Support Team page.  It triggered a sad memory for me...
 
The more loving, gentle and patient we can be with these dear old folk the easier it is for not only us, but for them also <3 <3 <3

I did everything in my power to help my beloved old friend, but no one would believe me because she could no longer talk and her abusive son held too much power in his high position in the community at the time and made many threats against anyone who tried to upset him in any way so everyone was afraid of him (I can only imagine how terrified his own mother, trapped in the house with him, was of him).  

I even phoned an abuse centre for the aged and they said that there was nothing they could do unless the abused woman reported her abuse herself..... !!!....They did not seem to hear or understand that she had dementia... they would not help me to help her!  Other people knew what she was going through but would not join me in the battle to help her.

In a last ditch effort, I had this poem published in the local newspapers, so that he knew that he was being closely watched!  

I had to receive therapy myself because I was so hurt by my futile struggle to help this old woman.  Her son could not accept her dementia and treated her cruelly because of it!  She was free at last when she passed away and soon after he also died a painful death...
 
What goes around comes around!

BELOVED ABUSED!
© All Rights Reserved ~ www.pattyskeys.co.za
 
Once a confident, happy old lady; head held up high,
Now I see tears in each reddened eye!
Your strengths and your womanhood beaten from your mind,
By someone so cruel, so horrid, unkind!
In the jaws of abuse your dignities lost,
Your honour and pride, in the garbage are tossed!
Your memories blackened by the power of ‘ONE!’
Those who once knew you, now are GONE!
But you live bravely on, in that shrivelled, empty shell,
Where you can no longer reach out, for someone to tell.
The beauty of your smile, now lost in a frown,
Misery and fear has become your sad crown.
I long for God’s arms to reach out for you,
And return the love and peace you once knew.
To heal all your bruises and the pain in your heart,
To renew your life in a wonderful new start.
For no one deserves the abuses you’ve born,
Alone in the darkness where you’re battered and torn!
 
(13 February 2007 – For my Dearest old friend, Maureen, with love forever)

~ Pana