Because Nothing Should Be Left Unsaid — Vanishing Reality
My name is Suzan. I am 62. I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 6 months ago, a few weeks after retiring from my job. Six months before retiring, I started noticing mild memory loss and was more often than usual looking for my words, and sometimes losing my balance. Since my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in her 70s, I decided to be pro-active and consult a doctor. After a few tests, my neurologist confirmed my fear. The disease had started doing its work. Seeing my mom slip away from reality in the past years, I had been wondering if I would be following her path. My husband and my 3 children were devastated. When you are 61 and start your retirement, you believe you have so much still to do in life. But with this recent diagnosis, I now know that my reality will start vanishing year after year, falling into a state where my loved ones will become strangers, feeling helpless with the outcome. I want to be there for them and I want to continue telling them how much I will continue loving them.
The difficulty for someone who is diagnosed with a brain decline disease, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, is that you continue being a person, but you no longer share the same reality as those surrounding you. You cannot perceive and interpret their emotions, you forget who you are, who they are. Seeing their mother and wife ‘disappear’ from their reality is extremely difficult to accept and deal with.
Recently, I shared my situation with a close friend and they mentioned to me the availability of new internet service called “Need2TellYou”. After understanding the features of this system, I decided to subscribe to it. It was easy to setup and I became accustomed to the user interface very quickly. There is even a dashboard that guides you through the various setup steps. Hence, I started uploading personal messages and videos that my husband and children will receive for their future birthdays, anniversaries, or even randomly during the year, so I can continue being with them. I even prepared a video they will receive the day I will not be able to remember anything at all, marking the beginning of this new ‘life’. They won’t have to do anything besides following the instructions Need2TellYou will share with them. I did not even tell them I subscribed to it. It will be a BIG surprise!!!
I am so grateful Need2TellYou exists and offers me a way to maintain my presence and continue expressing my love to them.
Need2TellYou, accessible at https://amer.need2tellyou.com,offers the world an opportunity to communicate what is left to be said, and fill the void created by our departure from this world.
