09/12/2025
Join us today at 3pm!!
Reflection: Loving Someone Who Is Changing
When someone we love is still here with us, yet slowly slipping away in pieces, the heart learns a new kind of grief. It is not sudden. It is not simple. It is a grief that asks us to hold on and let go at the same time.
Each day with dementia brings its own mix of emotions—love, confusion, exhaustion, tenderness, frustration, and sometimes unexpected moments of joy. And in this space, we learn something profound: grief does not only follow death. It can begin in the quiet moments when a familiar story is forgotten, when a name slips away, or when a part of the person we knew fades.
But there is also something deeply human and deeply courageous happening here.
We continue to show up.
We continue to love.
We continue to honor the person they were, and the person they are becoming.
Some days, that looks like patience.
Some days, it looks like forgiveness—of them, and of ourselves.
Some days, it simply looks like sitting beside them, allowing presence to be enough.
As caregivers, we learn to celebrate small moments: a smile, a gentle touch, a shared memory that flickers back to life. These moments remind us that connection is still possible—different, but real.
And we also learn to care for ourselves. To give ourselves permission to grieve, even while our loved one is still alive. To acknowledge the emotional weight we carry. To lean on each other for strength when our own strength is thin.
Today, let this group be a reminder that none of us walk this path alone.
We are surrounded by people who understand the complexity, the heartbreak, and the beauty of loving someone through dementia.
May we offer ourselves the same compassion we give to those we care for.
May we find peace in the moments that are still good.
And may we remember that love—despite everything—continues to grow, even in the spaces where memory cannot reach.
