By Gurney Williams
If dementia is a thief, guilt is an accomplice.
My wife Linda’s disease stole years of our marriage until she was wholly dependent on a team of professionals in an assisted living facility. But caregiver guilt began to haunt me on the day we got her diagnosis.
A New York neurologist told us her symptoms—difficulty in writing and speaking—were consistent with a rare dementia. My hand-written notes from that meeting in the doctor’s cramped office were as jumbled as the thoughts in my mind. Long black lines slashed across the page, connecting medical words I didn’t understand, including the name of her disorder, “primary progressive aphasia.” A circle surrounded bold capital letters, “CAN’T KNOW.” That meant no one could be certain about how Linda’s disease would play out. But it was clear she would eventually need full-time help, possibly for the rest of her life. Continue reading →