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Alzheimer’s Disease and Imperfect Sunsets to Life
All death is certain, of course, but a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is among the more trying of ways mortality comes for someone.
The thing about doing what we who write and opine do is to keep up with current events and the news one has to intake a vast amount in order to fuel the output of writing. That means lots of reading, lots of filtering through the trends, narratives, screaming headlines, and subtle nuances of information that firehose from our modern technology into our brains.
And then, once in a while, you read something that stops you in your tracks.
The news that legendary singer Tony Bennett has been dealing with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis for several years, and the details written up in AARP by John Colapinto with the Bennett family’s cooperation, did just that.
But Tony was a considerably more muted presence during the recording of the new album with Gaga. In raw documentary footage of the sessions, he speaks rarely, and when he does his words are halting; at times, he seems lost and bewildered. Gaga, clearly aware of his condition, keeps her utterances short and simple (as is recommended by experts in the disease when talking to Alzheimer’s patients). “You sound so good…
