Bayside Oaks - Revisited

Sharing an essay about my mother's Alzheimer's Disease - written long ago

I am mindful that I am now, more or less, the same age as my mother was when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It is a disquieting reality. I so clearly remember those difficult days.

She had traveled to Israel with her husband Leon, and somewhere along the trip she contracted pneumonia. My sister Susan called me to tell me that she was in the hospital and seemed very confused. I took the train up from Baltimore, transferred to the Long Island Railroad to the Great Neck Station, and then an Uber to North Shore Hospital. She smiled and greeted me warmly and asked what brought me there. I told her I was in the neighborhood.

Over the next four years I visited her whenever I could, each time to find that her dementia had advanced. I observed her descent in time-lapse. None of these visits were easy, but all of them were wonderful.

I wrote two long essays about my mother’s Alzheimer’s journey. Each is a pastiche of pathos, sadness, love, and hope — not unlike all our lives. These may find their way into another book collection of essays. For now, I am pleased to share “Bayside Oaks,” named after the New York suburb where we grew up.

It can be found HERE