Alzheimers

I have never been around someone with this debilitating disease until recently. Witnessing first hand the affects of this disease is scary and I only pray it doesn't happen to any of my love one or myself. To lose your mind is incomprehensible. This past Friday I was backing out of my driveway to go pick my boyfriend up from oral surgery, when an elderly lady flagged my car down. Thinking it may be one of my neighbors, I stopped. The lady began speaking to me in Polish, of which I didn't understand a word but I was able to ascertain that she was lost and attempting to give me her address. Seeing how flustered and scared she was, I couldn't possible leave her there. So I decided to call some people I knew who spoke Polish and try and figure out what she was saying. It was determined that she was reciting her address in Poland. This elderly lady had no idea where she was and just wanted to go home, to Poland. By this time, I had figured out that she was most likely suffering from Alzheimer's. Eventually she was able to find a slip of paper in her purse which stated she was an Alzheimer's patient and provided an emergency contact number. Just my luck, the emergency contact person didn't pick up her phone any of the 4 times I called her. At this point, I had no choice but to call 311 and have the police come out. During this 40 minute ordeal, the poor lady just kept repeating her Polish address and my heart went out to her. To have your memory stripped away like that has got to be one of the most awful things to happen to a person. To not know who you are or where you are is frightening. I shutter to think what could have happened to her if someone with ill intentions had been the one to find her. How she got to my subdivision, I'll never know but I am thankful I was there to help and I pray that if I ever suffer from this disease there will be someone willing to help me. And thankfully my boyfriend was understanding as to why I was an hour late picking him up, I'm sure the drugs helped mellow him out.