The Living~Dying Duet: Living Affects Dying, Dying Affects Living

Two Parts of my Life Come Together and Create a New Life for Me

My life has become a Living~Dying Duet. Both living and dying have become much more present for me than they were before my diagnosis of Early-Stage Dementia. This is already a big change, and as I'm learning in this dementia-world an unexpected change usually brings another unexpected change behind it. Not only were they present, not only did I have to learn about them, but now I began to realize what impact the connection between them was going to have on my life.

In a phrase: each one adds to the other. Living with the presence of dying makes my living richer, and dying with the awareness of living makes my dying more meaningful. Neither is any longer "the usual", rather both together let me feel my life in ways I never have before. It's all feeling, I'm not able and wouldn't even try to think about what's happening. I needed time to absorb what was happening, and as I did the many directions that this led to kept appearing. I was put in a different world with different rules and needing different actions, and I needed to find my way. To use a bit of dark humor: this dementia stuff is enough to make you crazy.