That’s my Mother. Threatening to shoot me with her walking stick. A deadly, give-em-hell look on her incredibly cute but roguish face. Triumph also, that she’s managed to get me in the sights of her gun. You can see it in the killer glint in her eyes. It is a game we daily play. Like the incompetent and bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Police and his sneaky and aggressive Chinese manservant Cato in the Pink Panther movies.
We stalk each other. Lie in ambush. Spring surprise attacks. It keeps us on our toes. My Mother is 90. She has Dementia. It has tragically transported her into second childhood. She now does not know better. Dementia has robbed her of her memory and social abilities. She’s now a little girl trapped in a nonagenarian’s aging and arthritic body. One minute playful, sugar and spice and everything nice as
the old nursery rhyme says. Singing and whistling. Wishing she could dance. But also teary, cranky, and petulant. Fussy about her meals. Refusing to go to bed without her Teddy Bear. And then, like some grande dame, feisty and argumentative, defiant and full of fight. This change in her personality breaks my heart. It is the regressive fallout of Dementia combined with several other old age-related ailments. And I have come to sadly live with it.
It could be worse. I have friends whose parents have Dementia, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. Who are abusive and violent. Screaming all day. And have to be restrained because they are aggressive and destructive. It is terrible to see parents fading away so painfully. No longer recognizing their children. Or
knowing who their grandchildren are. I don’t know what I would do it my Mother reaches this stage. She remembers little of her past. I am her world. So I make the most of her. I play her games. Wrestle with her. Engage her in mock fistfights. Tie her up in headlocks. Careful not to hurt her old and brittle bones. Pretend to pinch her bottom. This is great entertainment for her. I don’t mind. It’s the little things that matter.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content have been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. I am interviewing almost every role model in this country and getting stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have been featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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