Some time ago, I read for the first time the word “Alzheimers” in a magazine. It described a man with this disease (I think he was a retired lecturer) who could only carry out such things as to dress, walk around the house, play with his dog or take care of the garden, and he hummed some melodies. At the same moment as the musical rhythm was interrupted, he stood still, like lost, and the concentration he put into the task he had been doing, diminished. When his wife realised this situation, she started singing one of his songs and her husband was then able to pick up the hum and return to one his activities.
From my point of view, within the tragic context of similar illnesses, the situation seemed to have a mysterious, as well as, a poetic element.
Now, I have had a direct experience with patients affected by the Alzheimers disease at different stages.
Based on an exhibition of my paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Murcia, where the memory and remembrance formed part of the subject matter, AlzheimUr Foundation invited me to work with them.
They have brought forward memories from their vague and shadowed remembrances, caught them and fixed on to the white fabric using colours, stables, threads and knots… within their capacity.
It was impressive to find out the following day, that a man did not remember having done this task, but it was even more impressive to see that after looking at “his” fabric for a while, he focused his attention on a spot of a yellow colour. It made him smile and he said: “Ah yes, this is my road paving machine that I have been working on building roads.”
Or a woman, in front of a scribble that she had done some days earlier, to say with a dreaming voice: “this “is” my mother. She was so beautiful! Did I do this? With my mother everyone was happy and was laughing. She was so funny.” Then she narrated new memories, looking at the scribble with tenderness.
These stains and scribbles provide in some way, the key to the memory that became locked from the inside, with the slam of the door.
Physical? Mental? Stimulant? What a mystery!
Attendible? Improvable? Curable? What an admirable effort!
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