My Life With Dementia
I have early-onset dementia — diagnosed at 61. Thanks to those who love me, I’ve lived joyously for almost a decade with the d-word. I call my dementia “Doña Quixote.” In my blog, book, and videos, I tell tales about her: the good, the mad, and the fugly.
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My blog posts
“Black Lives Matter,” shout I, who grew up white in South Africa, a perpetrator, beneficiary, and eyewitness of Apartheid
Featured image: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart),” 1983. Dementia makes you forget, but you don’t get to choose what you forget about your own part in racism. What you learned first, when you were a small child, usually lasts the longest. WHAT I WANT TO FORGET Watching out of the living room […]
Taking up arms against the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Doña Quixote breaks out her glue gun
Today, I picked up a cup in the living room to take to the dishwasher. In our kitchen, five steps away, I could not find the dishwasher. Or, rather, the concept of “dishwasher” did not come together in my head, even though I kept repeating “dishwasher, dishwasher” in my mind to remember what to do. […]
“Living full out”: Nancy Solari interviews Gerda about accepting support from others in her uncertain future with dementia
I met Nancy Solari some time ago when she pre-recorded an interview about my dementia for her radio show. This week the show is being broadcast as If You Are Uncertain of the Future, by Turning to Others for Support You Will Be Able to Live Full Out. Nancy Solari has first-hand experience of living […]