ALzheimers. A truly sad and hateful disease. A terrible disease that rots away the mind until a blank existence. Cancer and heart disease get the recognition, but Alzheimer's degenerates the mind. Slowly, and emotionally painful, for everyone.

My grandma, Marie, has Alzheimer's. She has been infected with it fore ten years and is progressively getting worse. Each passing day, worse. She has no clue who anyone is. Her son, daughters, husband, no one, just another face. Her husband, Mel, and sole provider recently died. She thinks he is still alive. Her mind can no longer grasp any amount of information. Simple or complex, important or not. Her brain is no longer a sponge, but an inpenetrable shell.

My step niece asked Marie for a cookie. She said ok and went into the kitchen to grab it. When she came out she went to a lamp and offered it a cookie thinking it was my niece. She then realized it wasn't and walked around frantically yelling for Mel. Every five minutes she is asking where Mel is. She will say, "I don't know where Mel went, but wherever he is he must be having fun!" She is so lost she didn't know he was gone at his funeral.

This terrible disease erased a past, present and future. A whole lifetime, gone. All the memories erased, as the brain dissolves. Until there is nothing but a soulless body. Sitting and staring. Gone.