The Art of Dementia Care by Matt Gannon
Pay attention to the details, even the small ones, because they can make a huge difference.
Eighty five-year-old Gus sits on his walker in front of the bathroom sink, wrapped in a large, yellow towel. Gus looks hard at me through the reflection in the steamy mirror, becoming fixated on my every move I make while I comb his long snowy white hair that is freshly blow dried after a shower in the late evening hours.
Gus stares long at my hands working, as he finds a brief break from his frantic, high-anxiety-panting breathing pattern and stuttering speech because he’s so beside himself with fatigue and worry from the day's sundowning syndrome.
Gus’s eyes are now absorbed with every movement of the comb, holding his breath with his mouth tightly open as I make one final sweep with the comb to get the last few hairs in his part just right, as I know he insists.
His face then turns from tight - to a tiny smile in one corner of his mouth. While exhaling slowly, softly and dry, he utters to me, “wow…that was beautiful, thank you.”
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