Rita went on to tell me that her mother had had a stroke which left her blind and with dementia. Her mother introduced herself as Genevieve. I told her how beautiful I thought her name was, and she beamed. She oozed love and kindness, and yet, without me taking the chance to get to know her, I would have thought she was some crazy woman saddling her daughter with an unbearable burden.
During my short time talking with them, I told them about this website and of the support it gives to caregivers. I also told Rita (the daughter) that I was working to change society's view of the dementia patient and to give some insight into our world. She squeezed my hand and thanked me, her face beaming with a smile of appreciation.
There, I did it. I took a big chance at being rebuffed when I approached a stranger. Instead, I was awarded with more than I could ever have imagined. I hope those watching in the office had some inkling of how wonderful this meeting was. I hope, too, that it showed them that there is so much more to a little old lady screaming out in a wheelchair than the limitations of her surrounding world, that she is a wonderfully warm woman beneath the chains of dementia and blindness.
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