"Pat and Peter went together to the doctor's appointment. In their eighties,
theyd been married over sixty years. Pat was a poet; Peter, a retired minister.
The specialist confirmed an earlier diagnosis: Peter was suffering from
dementia, cause unknown. Some "accident in the brain" was robbing him of his
short-term memory. Every ten or fifteen minutes, his mind would reboot, and he
lost all recollection of what he'd experienced in that short span of time. His
long-term memory remained intact, along with his sweet and gracious personality,
his intelligence and dry wit, his devotion to peace and justice-making, his love
of Pat and their family.
But he was living now in a radical present. He could no longer meaningfully
build upon the past or anticipate the future.The moment he arrived home from
the doctor's office, Peter climbed up into the attic and rummaged around for
his old clarinet."
Phyllis Cole-Dai shares more in this moving love story.
