a letter

Leola got a letter in the mail yesterday from an old friend in Bandon, OR. When I gave it to her, she didn't know quite what to do. She kept looking at the envelope and reading the return address out loud, then her name and then the post mark (which said Rochester, NY for some odd reason). "I don't know anyone in Rochester," she said. The letter was addressed to her, but it said, "c/o Jon and Julie".

She said, "Oh, it's from Jon and Julie. They are my cousins."

"I'm Julie. Why don't you open it and see who it is from?"

This has to be one of the saddest things I've seen so far in the deterioration of her brain. She has lost the ability to understand the parts of a letter - who is writing it, where it came from and even who it's for. She didn't remember the friend who had sent it or where Bandon is. Several time during the next half hour she asked me where Bandon is.

Later in the evening when we were getting ready for dinner, I told Jon, "Leola got a letter today."

"I did?" she said.

"Sure. It was from your friend Jackie, in Bandon. What did you do with it?"

"I didn't get a letter." she insisted.

"It was over next to the chair before. It's probably still there." I said.

She found it and the whole conversation started over again.