腦海里的橡皮擦

I don’t have much personal experience with Alzheimer’s disease， but my nana（grandma） suffered from a form of dementia that shared several symptoms with Alzheimer’s.

As long as I had known her， and from all accords， nana was an inherently negative woman. Her favorite pastimes included verbally abusing my mother， blaming people for things， and smoking 40-60 Kent cigarettes a day （without turning on the electric ashtrays my mom got her）. So visiting my grandparents’ apartment in Queens was not something we looked forward to. And then dementia set in…

It was really weird visiting grandma in hospice care. After half a century of nicotine intake， she suddenly forgot she was a smoker. She put on a few pounds （which happened to me when I quit smoking， too） and she was even a bit playful at times. She would tell jokes and ask if we brought her any candy. She wasn’t always sure who we were， at least not right away. And there was the occasional awkward moment when she would ask if my mom and I were a couple. But， as terrible as it is to say， I enjoyed this nana’s company better than the old one.

As you may have surmised， this month’s features are all about Alzheimer’s. In I Yelled at You Today， Pat Tomlinson feels sorry for yelling at her mom， and ends up learning a lesson in patience before saying goodbye. In What Alzheimer’s Disease Feels Like， Dr. Stephen Hume takes an introspective look at his ongoing battle with the disease. And in Still My Grammy， we see a grandmother’s facilities slowly fade through the eyes of a young girl.

So don’t forget all your elders out there， who’ve probably forgotten more than we relative youngsters have learned in our abbreviated lifetimes. In other words： remember those who can’t.

我個人并沒怎么接觸過阿爾茨海默病，但我外婆（外祖母）得了一種癡呆癥，其癥狀與阿爾茨海默病有幾分相似。

從我認識她開始，無論在哪個方面，外婆都是個天性消極的人。她最愛的消遣包括用言語羞辱我的母親，責怪別人，每天抽40至60根的健牌香煙（沒有用上我媽媽買給她的電子煙灰缸）。因此，去皇后區探望外公外婆并不是一件讓我們期待的事。然后，癡呆癥降臨了……

去療養院看望外婆的感覺真的很奇怪。在攝入了半個世紀之久的尼古丁后，她突然忘記了自己是個煙民。她的體重增加了幾磅（我戒煙時也是這樣），有時她甚至變得有點兒調皮可愛。她會講笑話，問我們有沒有給她帶糖果。她并不總能認出我們，至少不能馬上認出。偶爾出現過這樣的尷尬時刻，她問我和媽媽是不是一對情侶。雖然這樣說很糟糕，但是比起以前的外婆，我更喜歡和現在的外婆相處。

正如你猜測的那樣，這個月的主題文章都與阿爾茨海默病相關。在《我今天吼你了》一文中，帕特·湯姆林森為吼了他母親而感到抱歉，并在天人永隔前學到了關于耐心的一課。在《當記憶漸漸消失》一文中，斯蒂芬·休姆博士對自己與阿爾茨海默病所作的斗爭進行了一番自我審視。在《奶奶，依然愛你》一文中，我們通過一個小女孩的眼睛目睹了其祖母逐漸喪失各方面能力的過程。

所以不要忘記你的那些長輩們，他們忘記的東西可能比我們這些年輕人目前的人生所學到的東西還要多。