Half and Hold

"Alzheimer's is worse for those not inflicted, but forced to watch. A progressive disease that devastates those around the inflicted and leaves the inflicted standing in a thick fog, but otherwise unharmed," she had explained to many of her research subjects and their families. Lauren could feel it moving in her, the dampness settling into the deep recesses of her brain, slowing her thoughts and obscuring some memories completely. She worked diligently to hold on to her memories, using all she had learned in her studies of the disease and bargaining with God to let her keep the most important ones: her children's names; the joys and frustrations they brought her over the years; her own name; and an identity she could recognize as hers. In return, she would sacrifice her body and the other half of her mind. Just let me keep these few things, she prayed silently. It was a prayer she fervently wanted heard and ultimately knew would go unanswered.

*** One Minute Writer***