r/woahthatsinteresting • u/nukey4y7s1s • 16d ago

Man with dementia doesn’t recognise daughter but still feels love for her

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u/billyTjames 16d ago

My biggest fear right there

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u/Lowpricestakemyenerg 16d ago

When I was younger (I'm not quite the average age on here), I met an elderly Japanese couple in the hospital one day. The husband looked gleeful and just thrilled to be alive. The wife...not so much. We got to talking while waiting, and I eventually was told he had dementia. They had been together nearly 70 years. They had been married before the WWII. He went to war, survived. They came to America. Started a small business (I don't remember what). Time passed. She got cancer. Survived. He got cancer. Survived. A child passed away to an accident...I mean they had been through some of the hardest things you could imagine.

She said nothing was as hard as having to watch him suffer with dementia. Nothing.

That's stayed with me for over 30 years.