Over that first week of CNY, one of the issues that provoked my thoughts so deep enough was this: Alzheimer's Disease.
For those who have subscribed Starhub Cable Channels should know or maybe don't know that Starhub actually opened up all the channels for our preview on that particular week. It's like hitting jackpot and you can view any possible channels that you want, haha, good right?
Caught a glimpse of Biography channel, Ch95.
That day should the Tuesday, 初三 if I'm not wrong. The channel was showing this documentary titled -Malcolm & Barbara: Love's Farewell.
Like what my title mentioned, it's about the story of this man who had dementia and how his conditions worsened throughout the 11 - 15 years till his death. (Yes, the camera-man cum producer filmed this for nearly 10+ years!) Telling the story was his wife, Barbara, who loves him so much yet misses his love as much. Alright, it was really really heartbroken and joy-depriving documentary. Teared a few times while watching.
Just that previous day, after our new year trip back from Malaysia, we went to the hospice to visit my grandma who suffered from early-middle stage Alzheimer's. The documentary really give me a hit on my head, awakening me to the fact that my grandma will be like Malcolm in the film in a few years time! Even though we may not be very very close compared to my relatives from my mum's side but somehow I don't know, as long as we are blood-related, there will be some strange form of connection or chemistry between us. I feel so much for her even we can't communicate properly through verbal with my broken hokkien and her mumbling words. It's actually quite saddening to know that she couldn't recognise any one of us except my aunt. Even though she's old and is chair-wheeled, she's becoming more and more child-like and playful, hiding oranges and passing oranges to me when I touched it. Maybe it's just one of the symptoms of Alzheimer's.
You know, the feeling of having someone but his/her soul is not there anymore is very torturing. We are suffering yet we know she's suffering at the same time and we are going to see her suffering more and more like a slow death and we couldn't do anything to make her feel better.
Well, it's quite emo I know....
Now watch this video, it's the promo trailer for the documentary. While watching this, I teared again...I couldn't bear to see my grandma becoming like him...