My mom died almost 2 yrs ago. It is close to what would have been her 84th birthday. She had Alzheimer’s. Her last 10 years of life, but especially when her mind started going in the last 5 years she was treated with profound dignity and care. Because Alzheimer’s makes it 1/2
Oct 6, 2026 · 3:04 AM UTC
Impossible to self regulate she would get scared. Every fear she had was met with kindness and compassion. She was soothed by words of adoration. My father told her time and again how much he loved her and how it was his life’s privilege to care for her. After all the love 2/3
She gave us it was his honour. One day I’ll tell the full story. My mom was born in 1942, and she, like most women was traumatized AF by traumatized AF people. But in her last years she was met with such dignity. She had to be moved into a care centre. She’s had no idea where 3/4
She was, but her humour was fully intact. Dad, the charmer he is, made friends with all the staff and would spend his mornings with her, every day. My eldest sister would visit every night, we’d go see her on the weekends. She was loved by her children, her husband and the 4/5
Staff. When she would get worried about being alone, or would miss my dad we’d call him and he would assure her with words of love and tenderness. My mother had the dignity she deserved at the end of her life. She knew she was loved, just simply because she was so loveable. 5/6
I miss her so much, but also she is in me. She loved me exactly as I needed to be loved. Again, I too was traumatize AF. My mother’s love was a life line for me, but it wasn’t as powerful as misogyny and patriarchy. It is now. I am safe and secure now. Everything I do with 6/7
People to help them heal has flecks of my mother’s love. It is her nurturing that saved me, that helped me understand the world and humans as I do. That and a lot of really good wisdom from clinicians and researchers in the field of complex trauma and dissociation, as well as 7/8