A video of a woman talking with her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, posted on YouTube, is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking.
The caption says it all: “Telling my mom with Alzheimer’s about my mom”. What this daughter had to say about her dementia-affected mother, to her face, might just put a tear in your eye.
Daughter shares moving conversation with mother who has Alzheimer’s disease
Via CBS News’ YouTube channel, a woman shared a video of a conversation she had with her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, earlier this year.
“Do you want me to tell you about my mom?” the daughter asks. For context, Alzheimer’s disease is a common form of dementia; dementia is the name for a group of symptoms associated with declining brain function.
Its symptoms can be hard to separate from some of the natural processes of aging, and for this reason people sometimes confuse the onset of dementia with simple old age.
Most importantly, for understanding why the short video conversation might be touching to so many people, is that the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease include memory problems, inability to recognise friends and family members, and difficulty performing spatial tasks.
‘She loved to dance’
The daughter then goes on to tell her mother that her mother “loved to dance”.
“Your mom did?” her mother replies, smiling and with a look of admiration on her face. They’re sitting together at home. The woman’s mother is on the couch with blankets draped over her.
“But she was scared everything,” the daughter goes on.
“Sounds like me,” comes the reply – ironically, since she’s talking about her.
“It does sound like you! She would put little bells on the doors inside of her house, and she would tell us, ‘so if anybody breaks in I’ll hear the bells jingle’.”
“I bet you she was pretty,” her mom says.
“She was. My mom was very pretty.”
Find the full video below.
‘Absolutely heartbreaking’
There are thousands of comments from people who were moved by the interaction. One wrote that it was “absolutely heartbreaking” to watch, while another commented that when the mother says, “she sounds like me”, that “would’ve broken me”.
Others have shared more detailed responses.
“I am really happy with how this situation was handled,” adds one. “If you know someone with Alzheimer’s, just sit and talk with them, no matter how hard it is that they don’t remember you, and no matter how many times they ask you the same question.”
Another tells of a conversation she had with her mother, who also suffered from dementia.
“At lunch she started telling us all about her daughters,” meaning her and her sister. “Telling us about the special gifts she saw in each of us. It was so beautiful and heartwarming.”
Since we don’t know what the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease is, there’s no certain way to prevent it. However, a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the risk. We’ve written several articles about risk reduction, how to improve cognition when living with dementia, and what to look out for when approaching a possible Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis.
