When mind and memory flee

There are around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and it is estimated that 225,000 will develop it this year. The increase in the number of people suffering from dementia is linked to the fact that we are living longer. The risk of dementia increases with age. One-in-three of those over 85 have dementia. The demands on the immediate family of caring for a loved one with dementia are very great and sometimes there is limited support. It is very distressing when someone we love seems to have become a different person and doesn’t recognise us or other family members and close friends. Carers, often a husband or wife, become very tired and may find it difficult to think positively. Caring can be a lonely when you can’t go out and fewer people call in. Carers experience a living grief because they feel they have lost the person they love and may feel guilty if they experience relief when the person dies. My wife’s mother suffered from dementia and she and her husband lived with us until she died. It was very sad when she couldn’t recognise her family. She was often anxious and fearful, especially when her husband went out. Sometimes she misunderstood situations and could become difficult to deal with. Yet, it was encouraging that she remembered some things clearly. When I read Psalm 23 to her she would say the words with me which she had memorised when she was a child. When my wife sang hymns to her it comforted her. As we face the challenges of life we need the comfort and help that God alone gives. Even when we forget him, he never forgets us. One hymn says, “And when these failing lips grow dumb, and mind and memory flee, when Thou shalt in Thy kingdom come, Jesus, remember me.” A modern hymn writer, Mary Louise Bringle, wrote a hymn for a friend whose mother had Alzheimer’s disease, “When memory fades and recognition falters, when eyes we love grow dim, and minds, confused, speak to our souls of love that never alters; speak to our hearts by pain and fear abused. O God of life and healing peace, empower us with patient courage, by your grace infused.”