Pictures are a lot like memories, wouldn’t you agree? They take us back to a time and place filled with happy moments.
Do you remember your first camera and the excitement you felt taking your first pictures? You couldn’t wait to get your pictures back and place your memories in a personalized photo album. How proud you were of your snapshots as you gathered family and friends around you, regaling them with the story behind each picture. What priceless memories of special moments those pictures brought back. Perhaps a smile or laugh accompanied your recall of the events the pictures captured.
Everyone had a camera and brought it to important family events recording the moment to be relived and enjoyed again and again; perhaps you’ve taken pictures similar to these with your Kodak Brownie, Cannon SRL, or Nikon Digital camera:
Birth of a child
Birthday parties
Holidays
First Communion
Your first car
Weddings
Prom night
Graduation
Baptism
Sporting events
Army buddies
Your pet
Grandchildren
Your garden
A sunset
Memories are the essence of who we are; they are our history, our values, our character. Memories are what distinguish us as human.
Have you looked at your old photo album recently? If it’s like mine, the photos are faded and slowly disappearing into the ether. The celluloid film degrades the paper due to a chemical reaction and washes the images away completely.
The brain has fibers and protein called plaques and tangles that spread throughout the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s. They attack the memory, causing the destruction and death of nerve cells,memory failure, personality changes, problems carrying out daily activities and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Each faded memory causes increase anxiety, frustration and loss of self-worth for the person with Alzheimer’s. Family and friends also share in the frustration. Those shared memories are no longer shared; they are lost to the person with Alzheimer’s and you are now the custodian of those memories. The person you knew and loved is no longer there. Imagine looking in the mirror before you brush your teeth in the morning, seeing a face you have seen every morning for the past 24,820 days and no longer recognize it. You don’t recognize your own image and think that there is a stranger in your bathroom. Imagine the horror of it all.
Our memories or life pictures are stored in the cortex of the brain. As the disease progresses over time, just as the celluloid on a picture fades away, memories fade and ultimately disappear completely. There is a profound loss for everyone.
The next time you pick up your camera take lots of pictures and create memories to be shared in the future. Let’s stop Alzheimer’s disease for the sake of memories. The memories you save may be your own.