The Memory Thief

The memory thief creeps

Up on unsuspecting victims, 

Robbing them slowly of themselves. 

It acts without care and teases 

Them, stealing first the memory

Of who they saw that day,

Or what they ate yesterday. 

But then it comes for other things. 

It strips a person of their childhood, 

Their loved ones and their conviction,

Until they have to believe the stories

Told to them, that had been theirs to tell.

Soon the victim doesn’t recognise

Home, family, surety, and they

Become a shell of the person they

Were before the memory thief. 

We call this monster

Dementia.

I wrote this when my elderly neighbour was diagnosed with dementia. She’s been there all my life and for much of my parents’ – she is like a surrogate grandmother to me. My maternal grandfather had Alzheimer’s but I was too young to understand then. Now, I can see the deterioration. And it hurts.