Washington DC
Some of you will have noticed that I haven’t written
in almost a month; you may be wondering what’s happened to me. I’m fine, but I just haven’t had anything new
to say. My cognitive lights are no
longer winking out. True, some are still
burned out and unlikely to return, but it seems I’ve written everything I’ve
had to say about them. So it’s time to
end this chapter in my life and close “Watching the Lights Go Out.”
This journey since my initial diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
two years ago has been a wild and amazing ride.
As I’ve written before, I have been and still am grateful for this
ongoing experience; I’ve become a better and more joyful person. Writing here has given me the opportunity to
share the journey with others, thereby clarifying my own experience.
More important, however, has been the joy I’ve felt in
the growth of this community created by you who have been reading it. Many of you have used the comments section of
the blog. At least as many others have
written me privately through
my website. And I suspect there are
others who, for many different reasons haven’t written but still feel part of
this community. All of you have given me
many gifts for which I am, and will remain, deeply grateful for each one of
you.
This blog
has been explicitly about my own personal experience with cognitive decline,
“watching the lights go out.” It’s been
that first-person, intimate story that has captured people’s interest and
sometimes even their hearts. It’s
important to me that I maintain the integrity of that purpose.
I’m going, therefore, to close the blog. I will be writing, however, about the process
of aging in much the same personal style.
I'm not yet sure where I'll write it. Perhaps I will create a new blog for that … or another topic. Perhaps, after a time to make a clear break
with the past, I will re-open this one. I will post something here about where you will be able to find it. But
for now I’m done.
I am deeply grateful.
