Alzheimer's: Creative Non Fiction Menage a Trois

PROLOGUE

After over thirty five years their relationship was as strong as ever, their love continuing to grow, change, and adjust to the times. Uninvited, a third partner joined the relationship.

It was not fashionable when they first fell in love, let along acceptable for two people of the same sex to do so. But Alzheimer’s does not discriminate nor ask permission and so it became a ménage à trois.

Each one was very much unlike the other. He was tall and he was short. He was fair and he was dark. He was slender and he was bulky. He was a recovering Catholic. He was a recovering Jew. He was calm, thoughtful, and orderly. He was animated, impulsive, and random.

Often he described him as a “stick,” meaning hard, formed, and inflexible. In turn, he described him as a “sponge,” meaning soft, malleable, absorbing. Over time the stick became more sponge-like and the sponge became more stick-like.

Now one was becoming less and one was having to become more. Slowly while one was becoming the back partner in this ménage à trois and while one was becoming the front partner, Alzheimer’s was becoming the dominant partner.