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Alzheimer's on the big screen
Did any of you get to see "Away from Her" as part of last Friday's FLICS at the Fox Theater? It was very good, and I urge any of you who haven't seen it to give it a viewing. Here's the plot summary from IMDB.com: Fiona and Grant are an Ontario couple who have been married for over 40 years. Now, in the oncoming twilight of their years, they are forced to face the fact that Fiona's "forgetfulness" actually is Alzheimer's disease. After Fiona wanders away and is found after being lost, they agree she must go into a nursing home. For the first time in the five decades their relationship has spanned, they are forced to undergo a long-time separation since the nursing home has a "no-visitors" policy for the first 30 days of a patient's stay, so they can adjust to their new surroundings...As the distance between husband and wife grows, Grant must draw upon his love for Fiona to perform an act of self-sacrifice in order to ensure her happiness. I went to see this film with a friend whose father suffers from Alzheimer's. The description of the onset of Alzheimer's being “like a series of circuit breakers in a very large house, going off one by one" is an accurate portrayal, she said. If anyone else has seen this and wants to weigh in, I'd like to know how well you think the film portrayed the disease.
1 comments from 1 users
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posted by
motopoet
on Feb 8, 2008 at 11:29 AM
I don't know if I even want to see it. I have first hand experience with the disease. My mother in law is afflicted with it. I watched her go from a strong willed, high spririted former business woman who raised five kids and lost her husband of 46 years to a motorcycle accident and still carried on to someone who can do almost nothing for herself. She doesn't know she is supposed to eat, or sometimes go to the restroom. Her long term memory is, for the most part intact, but she can't remember what she did five minutes ago. She recently fell and just layed in the floor for hours, according to my ex, not even realizing she needed to get up. She just thought she was in bed. She is always "packing" thinking she is "going home now". She was left alone before Christmas(she lives with my ex)while Bev went to the store and when she came home her Mom had unwrapped all the gifts and stashed them around the house, not even realizing she had done so. There is nothing malicious about her behavior, it's just the nature of the disease. She only recognizes a few people anymore such as Bev, myself , some of teh grand and great grandkids and her other daughter. It is very sad and especially hard on Bev, who seems to be the only one of five kids interested in caring for her. Thankfully, her mom has the money on top of medicare to provide for her long term care which will, most likely, happen this year. It is a disease that can exact a terrible price not only on the patient, but on the rest of the family as well, creating a stable of victims of the disease. There is nothing sweet or theatrical about her condidtion and there will be no happy ending, only the sadness in realizing that, by the time she passes, she will remember absolutely nothing about the nature of her life over the last ten years or that there are people who love and care for her. I'll tell Bev about the film, but I doubt she will be interested in it either. The reality of her situation is hard enough.
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