Remembrance playwright draws on mothers frightening battle with Alzheimers

The play “Remembrance” just closed its off-B’way run.Subject? Caregiver for a parent with Alzheimer’s.Assessment: It’s tough.

Me, having experienced this personally, why am I willing to relive the pain?To help others facing it.Playwright Patricia Goodson, who lived with her mother, is an educated lady.Polished credentials.

She says: “Mom could not be alone.She would follow me around.

Then get lost.We’d search everywhere and finally find her.

It was scary.“Frightening things began about 12 years before the end.My mother, for 25 years, was an educated lady with A-1 credentials.

The first issue was memory.In the beginning a caregiver would drop her off at home in a cab.

She’d start screaming.Throw keys in a box.

Say she had no money.“One day they lost her.Bills lay tucked under the front door.

To her it all looked unfamiliar and she didn’t know where she was.When we finally got her to her room it was unfamiliar to her.

She wouldn’t let me in.“We took her to the hospital.She wouldn’t let me in the room and she failed their test.

We then tried a senior center.An adult care person would return her.“She could not be alone.

I had home care people.Even adult day care people.

Then a babysitter.Then we tried professional adult sitters care people.

Then I went to my mom’s volunteer center.The big argument was bedtime.

I would wash her.She didn’t even know how to get out of the tub.

Me walking into her bedroom? She’d see me and freeze.Then scream all night long.

They call that sundowning.I would put her to bed.

She’d start talking to the person in the mirror.Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email address.

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“I went to my priest.I sought grief counselors.

I had to find some way to honor my loved one.My mother! Many of us caregivers a...