© Noel Stallard OAM – April 2020

There’s a thief that we know as dementia,
his intent is to plunder and thieve.
And the male and female of our species,
are the victims he seeks to bereave.
For like some viral vampire he’ll siphon,
our expression of love for our mate.
He’ll escape with our memory and reason.
He’ll diminish our chance to relate.

Like most thieves, all compassion is absent.
He’ll add judgement and mind to his loot.
Leaving void intellectual function,
so the victim’s no longer astute.
And what mem’ries are left from the pillage,
are distorted with place and with time.
So attempting to share brings confusion,
as recalling seems all out of rhyme.

And those victims dementia has burgled
have been robbed of their means to express.
What they need, what they want, what they’re feeling,
so the loved one now only can guess.
Still we know from the actions they give us,
they can comprehend things that we say.
With appropriate smiles and with gestures,
so we know they are with us today.

And for every loved one with dementia
there are other loved ones it affects.
And it’s these that can often feel helpless
to reduce what dementia infects.
For the patient has been the companion,
the companion as husband or wife;
but dementia’s robbed both of a future,
of together in all walks of life.

Now this thief’s outside our jurisdiction,
we can’t punish dementia for theft.
But accept what remains is our treasure,
there’s still treasure in what has been left.
Our relationship though it is different,
“the loved one is still there”, it is said.
So with love we’ll see life out together,
as we’ve done since the day we were wed.