We watched him as he became less of the man we knew
And more of the man the disease was to make him
We watched him, helplessly, as he struggled to understand what was happening to him.

We watched him, painfully, as his confusion grew,
We watched him, proudly, as his sense of humor eased his pain and the pain of others.

We watched him, not accepting our fate, asking "Why, why, why?",
We watched him, crying, as much for ourselves as for him.

We watched him, lovingly, as he grew more and more restless,
We watched him, sadly, as we began to see we must get help,
We watched him, happily, as he adjusted to his new "safe" place.

We watched him, anxiously, as he tried time and again to "go home",
We watched him, our hearts breaking, on the "good" days and the "bad",
Never knowing what the "right thing" to do really was,
Hoping that we were somehow doing it.

We watched him, those big brown eyes becoming cloudier, more distant,
We watched him, in agony, as he searched for family long gone from this earth,
We watched him, helplessly, oh so helplessly, as this demon of demons consumed him.

We watched him and we loved him, We loved him and we watched him.

Copyright © 1999 Julie Western-Zuge
Used with permission of the author.

Julie has written a series of poems for her father,
an Alzheimer's victim, and she is sharing them with
us here and on the previous two pages. Thank you so much,
Julie, for sharing.

Email Julie at: jwz@tznet.com