Love and Alzheimer's

     
     She was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s disease and her husband, in his early 80’s, visited her daily. He sat opposite me in my office one afternoon, just needing someone to talk to, and said: “You know, my friends ask me why I go to visit her every day when she doesn’t even know who I am.” He paused and looked down at the floor. When he looked up, the tears had begun to flow. He could hardly speak. In the silence he regained his composure. “I ask them, ’You know why I go to visit her? Do you know why? It’s because I love her, that’s why. Can you understand that? I love her.’”