Dementia is a Two-Headed Snake

Here is a recent article I did for Half Moon Bay Patch about dementia and caregiving. The photo of the Two-Headed Snake was taken by Slug45.

"Tell me about the time you saw the two-headed snake," I begged my grandmother.

Snuggling together on my double bed, grandmother would tell stories at night until I could no longer keep my eyes open. She told me about growing up on the plains of Kansas, her father’s general store, her courtship with my grandfather, becoming a farmer’s wife, and life on the farm.

But my favorite story was when she was exploring the nearby creek alone and spied a two-headed snake sunning itself on a rock. She was six-years-old and the year was 1915. Her siblings didn’t believe there was any such thing, and blamed the heat for her wild tale. I was intrigued, and could clearly picture that bicephalic serpent in my imagination.