Physical and cognitive impairment

[Guest guest]

Dear la:

You have a wonderful father. He must have had a very happy, fulfilled life.

I am glad you told us about him. I like to know the person and not just

another LBD victim. We can celebrate their lives and accomplishments. He must

have also really enjoyed your mom's cooking! :-)

The story he liked to tell is wonderful. It is a great that he was

recognized and made a carreer of his knowledge, withouth the need of a degree.

He is a

good, honest human being, unfortunatelly, it is so easily recognized and

people that are not like him take advantage. I am sure he would have loved to

give his family the monetary rewards of his inventions.

It must have been really sad to have to dismantle his laboratory. Yes, his

life and his creation were there. A laboratory is the most relaxing and

fullfilling place to some of us. He put all his attention in his creations, no

worries. A happy place.

Do you have siblings? I think you mentioned it before, but I didn't keep

track. I am really glad you joined the group, unfortunatelly the reason for

joining is not good.

God bless you and your family, hugs, ciao,

Josie

[Guest guest]

Dear Josie,

I think that for my dad the worse is to realize that he's loosing his

cognitive abilities. The job of my father was using his mind. It's

not because he's my dad, but he was (sorry but I've no evidence to

write " is " and this is so painful) truly ingenious and incredibly

smart. He started working as an electrician because he left school

and he didn't have a paper to show he knew much more than that. He

has always been passionate in his job. That's what we have learned

from him: try to have a job you love. He loved telling this story:

the first day of work, he was on a ladder fixing some electrical

device. In the room there was the boss discussing with other people

about a problem they had. My father pretended to do what he was

supposed to do but instead he was looking at those guys down and

trying to get what the problem was about. Suddenly, he shouted from

the ladder the solution. The people there fell silent, looked around

and couldn't believe that the electrician up there could tell them

how to solve it. The boss realized that my dad was right and asked

" What are you doing up there? Come here! " . The day after he was

employed as a technician.

In his career he worked to new household appliances and patented

several inventions (unfortunately he wasn't good enough in

understanding people and trusted the wrong persons, so he had not the

- also economic - acknowledgement he deserved).

He had always a real laboratory where to carry his experiments. We

had to divest it last year, when it was clear he was not able to go

back there again. He never asked of it. He knows that we had no way

to keep all that stuff. There was all his life there. Since he went

to the hospital and had that stupid surgical operation he hasn't

mentioned his job or his laboratory. I am pretty sure he still thinks

about all the inventions he could not finish but it's too painful for

him to talk about it.

la

[Guest guest]

la:

I read your story and felt so sorry to hear about your dad's

cognitive loss and the sacrifices he's making because of this illness.

I think anyone who is creative is a genious so I'm certain you're

right in suggesting your father had a remarkable mind.

Like I said before, for my dad the biggest sacrifice is his physical

decline. When he stopped being able to control his body the way he

wants to he lost a significant part of himself.

One day I hope they discover a way to stop this beast of an illness

dead in its tracks.

Abby

[Guest guest]

Dear Josie,

Yes, I've a sister (12 years older than me) who lives in Milan. I've

also a brother (6 years older than me) but he lives close to Venice.

He manages to visit my parents often.

Take care,

la