

A Love Story for a Mother
“What is your name?” my mother said to me on the fortieth day of my fifty-eighth year. We were clearing brush along the tree line of her property. It was about four o’clock. Time of day is noteworthy for people with Alzheimer’s disease, like my mother. I knew she was sundowning. This term describes what happens – generally in the late afternoon or early evening – to a person with Alzheimer’s after her energy level starts to fizzle. She gets confused and perhaps suspicious. He