Alzheimers isn’t a word that’s spoken often in my family, which is odd considering that two of my Great Aunts suffer from it. I’m not positive what happened to my Grandmother, but she was never well, the entire time I knew her. She died, when I was ten. She had lived in a nursing home, for most of her life I think.

Here’s how my mother explained it to me: After my grandma had her fourth child, a daughter, my Aunt Karen, she had a mental breakdown. She suffered from dementia and never recovered. In fact, as far as I can recall she never spoke the entire time I knew her.