I listened to the section between minutes 12-15 of the Teepa Snow video I shared previously on dementia and language about 5 times (https://youtu.be/0BlZF_4EKp4). It really got to me. In that section she basically explains why the person with dementia latches onto someone who helps them communicate:
“Many of these folks will choose to go mute because they DO recognize that they’re losing the skill (of communicating). And this is when they don’t want to get separated from their spokesperson. Speech is so critical in our environment and in our world that if they don’t have a way to connect, they can become so panicked that they can’t function. It’s so horrible when they’ve used words to connect, to communicate, and now they have none. And they know it.”
I always felt that through the thousands of hours one on one and with others that I got to spend with Mitzi, that I was able to be her voice in many situations and conversations. We had played the “Can I Buy A Vowel” game so many times through the years as her grip on her words slipped further from the fingertips of her brain that I really could just look at her face oftentimes and know what she was thinking. That is, at least until sometime late this summer when she had finally drifted so far away that none of us could reach the language lifeline that had come unmoored from the dock where we were all standing, helpless.
I often felt kind of like the Annie Sullivan to her Helen Keller. I guess it was why I hated to be absent from her world for any long stretch of time. Even though I knew her family likely had the same ability with her, it was still a part of our relationship that fascinated me. And, more than anything, I so appreciated the unfailing trust she had in me to help be her voice. It can be a very daunting task. One that takes time and patience.
But it is so very worth it…????
