Highlands West of Inverness |
Agnes :
A professional, still
working and plan to retire in another five years
Betty : Recently quitted her
thirtieth job and is currently
looking for a job
Carol : Quitted working
several years ago and care for the aging parents
Dorothy: A full time housewife
(Place : Inside a
restaurant. The women are sharing a salad, a roast beef sandwich and some
pasta.)
Dorothy My dad’s dementia appears to be getting worse.
Carol Mmmmm..
I don’t mind losing memory of some of the things that had happened in my life.
Betty
Oh no not dementia or Alzheimer,
you don’t want that to happen. That ‘s when you do not recall recent
events and you probably remember every single detail about the past.
Dorothy It’s
terrible to not know or remember
the things you normally do.
Agnes It feels like overloading of
information sometimes I forget where I left my sunglasses and they are just
sitting right on top of my head …hope that’s not a sign of
me losing my mind.
Dorothy
Well he placed his dentures in the fridge…..argh well….
Betty
Old age sucks!
Agnes These days sometimes when I switch bags
and I have a tough time
remembering where I could have left my car keys or a particular
lipstick in. Is that a sign of Alzheimer?
Dorothy I guess you won’t know when it happens. My advice to you : stick to one bag.
Carol I find that I have to remember my dad’s pills and I’m beginning to forget my own supplements.
Agnes Oh what kind of supplements are
you on?
Carol Barley green, bilberry, fish
oil and evening primrose oil.
Agnes That many?
Carol I want to stay healthy to enjoy my senior citizenship.
Another 10 years?
Betty Aiyo not so soon, if you
think you are old you are old.
Agnes We should
have majong sessions, remember the cards sessions during our bungalow stays?
Carol
Agnes used to win all the
time.
Betty
Agnes was always game to
be a banker.
Dorothy Hey I remember Agnes was really good
at playing bluff, even Kenny and his boys lost to you.
Betty Hey that sounds so incorrect. What do you mean by even the boys lost to her ?
Betty Hey that sounds so incorrect. What do you mean by even the boys lost to her ?
Agnes You girls have such good memory, I cannot
remember at all.
Carol Remembering stuff about our past will not help. This talk is depressing
me, let’s order coffee.
(As Carol tries to get the attention of one of the waiters,
Betty looks contemplative.)
Betty
I remember my mother telling me
about some relative of my aunt
fell into a habit of washing her hands repeatedly. It
sounded like she had some sort of
compulsive obsessive disorder but
to think of it , she could have forgotten that she had already washed
her hands. That must be dementia.
Agnes
Terrible
isn’t it? I wonder if we are
constantly in denial of the
happening of certain things and consciously ignoring it you know by blocking
out a certain part of our memory, will that trigger dementia?
Dorothy Far out!
Agnes No it is not so incredulous. You know when you so want to escape from reality, you reconstruct your actual situation or what you witness otherwise it is unbearable.
Dorothy Sounds too deep to me .
Betty Mmmm
an exercise to forget things ? Interesting. Well is that what is
called distortion of reality?
Carol We face different challenges at different age. Stop worrying . Why is the
waiter
walking away ?
Dorothy We are no more pretty faces lo, that’s why he
does not see us .
Betty Hey
speak for yourself . Look at Agnes amazingly fit .
Agnes Mmmm thanks
Betty.
Dorothy Of course she exercises eight times a
week. I look like a old bag.
Carol No you don’t. Stop whining, you should come and join me for walks around the botanical garden.
Dorothy You kidding. I don’t
have time.
Betty I
think exercise is definitely important to keep our mental faculty sane.
Agnes Yup I need to de-stress through my tennis and running. I
think I'll go bonkers without my workout.
Betty It is the serotonin that picks us up.
Carol
Maybe that is one of the
ways to prevent the mind from slipping.
I reckon worrying is
definitely bad for health.
Betty
Of course of course, when we worry we just zoom in and the issues become
magnified. When that happens, I find my head hurting.
Dorothy No kidding?
Betty No
kidding.
Dorothy Should I bang the
table to get attention ?
Betty No you
don’t. Look he is coming over to
our table now.
The women order their coffee and continue to chatter, chatter, chatter…..