fragments of a lifetime
when you die one day
memories lost
Photograph: 14.04.2016
Translation:
Vacation time!
We’re taking a vacation and setting off on a journey. We’re going to see the world, in this wonderful way—
Whether it’s home or a distant land, we’ll gaze at the mountain peaks and drive to the beach.
We realize the world is beautiful—whether on palm-lined beaches or rocky cliffs.
When we’re old and gray, then it’s over—the young ones leave, and we stay behind.
But the memories remain; they’ll keep us company in our old age and bring us joy.
Mr. Spickenreither lived in the nursing home with his wife.
He had suffered from dementia. She did not.
He had long since forgotten the above text.
They lived together in a room in the active seniors’ wing.
She took care of him.
Then she died,
and on the very same day he had to move downstairs to a room with a stranger, a man with severe dementia,
who was lying there naked from the waist down.
He just kept saying, “Oh my, God."
He died a long time ago.