“Imagine, if you will, a peaceful
English countryside. Close your eyes and
feel the blessed warmth of the sun enveloping you in a warm embrace as it
lights up the majestic scene. Playing
through the trees, a soft, cool breeze softly caresses your arms before
hurrying along to play through the lush grass on the hillsides. And if you turn just the right way, you can
hear the distant bleating of sheep searching for their mistress. Sheep… sheep… my sheep… oh where are my
sheep? I’ve lost them don’t you know,
and I’ve no idea where to find them! I
thought if I left them all alone, they’d find their way home… but oh my poor
lost sheep! Have you any bread that I
can borrow?” As the elderly storyteller turned
away from the picture she had painted in the distance, she looked expectantly
at her audience for an answer. Only, the
grand audience she had imagined turned out to just be her neighbor of many
years, Mrs. Mary Higgins. She looked
with confusion back to where her eyes had just roamed and, instead of a magnificent
landscape, just saw the wood of her own cottage walls.
“Bread? Sheep?
Hahaha, oh Mistress Bo-Peep, what stories you do tell! If I don’t watch it, I might find myself
swept away into that world of words you create.
No wonder the children are always circling around, begging for more of
your tales!” Mrs. Higgins exclaimed as
she worked. Indeed, Mrs. Higgins had
come with bread and other sorts of food supplies for her dear neighbor of 30
years as she did every week. It had
started out of pity for Bo-Peep when her husband had passed away the previous
year, but now Mrs. Higgins carried on because she wasn’t quite sure that
Bo-peep would be able to get along without her help. Oh, she joked that it was all because of her
own need to be taking care of the world, but there was just something a bit… queer…
about her neighbor Bo-Peep.
“To each his own I suppose, but
please don’t let me keep you from your chores my wonderful, industrious
neighbor. These old bones of mine might
not be up to what they used to be, but they know how to find the butter and
milk the bread if you know what I mean.
Now where did I put that sheep of mine?”
Mistress Bo-Peep responded after a while. She still wore that look of confusion, but
now was rummaging around through some papers she had on her desk.
In actuality, Mrs. Higgins did
not entirely know what she meant, but she supposed it didn’t hurt to humor a
little bit of nonsense every now and then.
After all, Mistress Bo-Peep was left to her own devices quite often in
her little cottage and that’s enough to drive anyone a little cuckoo sometimes.
After she finished tidying up
the kitchen, Mrs. Higgins headed back to her own cottage down the path to work
on a few of her own chores, all the while thinking back about her neighbor’s
curious tales. “You know, I just don’t know about her
lately. She’s been a bit odd for years,
but now I can’t quite tell if she knows what she’s talking about or if I’m just
filling in the gaps in her story. It’s
almost as if she forgets who she is sometimes, what with all that talking about
lost sheep and milking bread,” she thought out loud. “Oh well, I’ll just make sure to keep an eye
on her, but for the time being there’s laundry to be washed and rooms to be
swept…”
After
the morning had passed into the early hours of evening, she heard the familiar
voice of her grandson singing a tune as he strolled along the country path to
his grandmother home.
“Little Bo-Peep
has lost her sheep,
And doesn’t know
where to find them;
Leave them alone,
and they’ll come home,
And bring their
tails behind them.”
“What,
what? What’s this you sing about
Mistress Bo-Peep Jimmy?” She asked as he
came into earshot.
“Oh,
hello grandmother! Isn’t it a jolly old
song! Us boys in the village made it up
today. Real quality stuff don’t you
think?”
“Not
at all Jimmy. I thought your mother had
raised you better than to go around making fun of your elders. Now you’re going to go right over to Mistress
Bo-Peep and give her an apology this instant!”
“Aw,
but grandmother! We just put into song
what she said herself! She was wandering
all over town today talking to people about her lost sheep.”
“In
town?! Why I just left her… this
morning. Hmm… and you say she’s looking
for her sheep? Why, she doesn’t have any
and hasn’t for over 20 years!”
“That’s
what I said. The whole town was talking
about it and trying to help her because she looked so worried. She even had the police out looking with her
in the meadows and under bridges.”
“The
police! Oh dear, I must go and find her.”
“Well,
I’d say you should check the meadows behind town first grandmother. Did you hear the rest of our brilliant song? It went
Little Bo-Peep
fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she
heard them bleating;
But when she
awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were
still a-fleeting.”
“Oh
Jimmy, no more of that you hear!
Mistress Bo-Peep is already out late and talking nonsense, so I don’t
need you to be… why hello officer!” Mrs.
Higgins exclaimed in surprise as she spotted a policeman coming up to her door.
“Hello
Ma’am, just wanted to stop by and let you know that your neighbor is safe and
sound back at home. To tell you the
truth ma’am, she was quite distraught earlier as she looked all over town for
her lost sheep. Folks were humoring her
at first, until they realized that she wasn’t quite in her right mind. We tried to help her a bit, but nothing was
calming her down until little Mary of Drury came out and handed Mistress Bo-Peep
her little, stuffed lamb. And would you
know it, the fleece on that doll was as white as snow? It calmed Mistress Bo-Peep right down so that
she would let us accompany her back to her home.”
“Why,
thank you officer! Thank you very
much! She hasn’t done anything like that
before, but you can rest assured, we’re going to be keeping a much closer eye
on her in the future.”
……………………………………………………………………………..
Now that’s where our tale ends, but for years after it was said – if you listened just right as the wind passed by, a jolly tune could be heard from the little cottage down the road where Mistress Bo-Peep and her little sheep resided…
“Then up she took
her little crook,
Determined for to
find them;
She found them
indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they’d left
their tails behind them.
It happened one
day, as Bo-Peep did stray
Into a meadow hard
by,
There she espied
their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree
to dry.
She heaved a sigh and
wiped her eye,
And over the
hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she
could, as a shepherdess should,
To tack each again
to its lambkin”
……………………………………………………………..
In all
seriousness, dementia in its many different forms can be a very difficult disease
not only for the individual, but for their loved ones and friends as well. Dementia is the true villain of this tale
because it robs the mind of reason and takes away the ability to think
clearly. It can change your very
personality, memory and perception of the world around you. With medications, its progression may be
slowed, but not cured. As a nurse
encountering families and patients struggling with dementia, just keep in mind
the struggle that people are going through to understand and cope
with the effects of dementia, as well as the difficulty our patients face with
losing their capacity to reason.
Medical Morales to Remember:
- Delirium (see Yankee Doodle Delirium) – acute, usually reversible brain disorder characterized by clouding of consciousness and a reduced ability to focus and maintain attention
- Dementia – general term for cognitive decline, "Dementia isn't a specific disease. Instead, dementia describes a group of symptoms affecting thinking and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily functioning." - Mayo Clinic
- Alzheimer's Disease - the most common form of dementia; chronic, irreversible, progressive brain disorder characterized by impairments in memory, abstract thinking, judgment, and personality changes
- Onset is gradual, course is insidious and progressive; medications are available to slow the progress and improve function, but there is no cure
- 10 Early Signs and Symptoms per Alzheimer's Association - memory loss that disrupts daily life, challenges in planning or solving problems, difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure, confusion with time or place, trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships, new problems with words in speaking or writing, misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps, decreased or poor judgement, withdrawal from work or social activities, changes in mood and personality
Additional Resources:
- MedlinePlus - Dementia
- Mayo Clinic - Dementia
- Alzheimer's Association
- WebMD - Alzheimer's Disease Health Center
- Dementia Challengers
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