SLIPPING AWAY – Shannon Proudfoot; Maclean’s Sept.14/15. http://site.macleans.ca/longform/alzheimers/index.html I was deeply touched by this personal story about the horrible disease of Alzheimer. Many of us are touched, at least indirectly, by this horrible affliction; and nothing brings the matter alive like a personal story well told; as Ms. Proudfoot has done here. I saw a relative deteriorate over two years to where she did not recognize her own children; and I have watched an acquaintance of mine slowly losing his faculties over a two-year period. One is left feeling helpless and sad watching someone’s slow but steady march into oblivion. We shudder to think; “what if this should happen to me?” It is a horrible thing to contemplate. Yet; while there is no light at the end of the Alzheimer tunnel; I recall watching a T.V. program abut Glenn Campbell’s struggle with Alzheimer; and his incredible will to still perform his music. It seems that music and musical ability is the last faculty to decline. A friend of mine is a support worker at a nursing home with many Alzheimer patients. When she plays old songs for them, they quicken and sing along. Ms. Proudfoot explains that while assisted suicide for people suffering intolerably with a fatal decease there are options in some European countries (and some States), and will likely become legal in Canada also; it does not resolve the problem of people with dementia who are not able to make a rational decision for themselves. At what point would one’s life not be worth living? This is an existential question that has no easy answer. Thanks to Maclean’s for another profound and insightful article. Keep it up. Sigmund Roseth