It's sad that so many elderly people have dementia: It's one thing to grow old gracefully, retaining a good memory, and the ability to walk around, and eventually either dying in your sleep, or in bed, shot by a jealous spouse. It took out 2 of my grandparents (Maternal Grandfather: Parkinsons, dementia appeared in the last few years; maternal grandmother: Suffered in the 2000's -- 2004-2005 -- and died in early June), my paternal grandfather died from causes unrelated to dementia (and possibly died before it ever surfaced, he was 80 years old), and my paternal grandmother has some signs of it (b. 1928).
Our memories make us who we are, and, as they say: If you break your arm, your still you; you break your brain: You're not you. Scary stuff.
About a year or two ago, I saw an elderly man with a hat that had U.S.A.A.F. written on it, exiting the pool. Almost immediately I said "you served prior to 1947...", he seemed surprised that I knew that, and I told him I was an aviation buff. Since he had a pin of sorts on his hat that had a marking that indicated he served in the 15th Air Force. It turned out he worked on B-24's and, at least some of his work involved ECM. Either way, he was pretty alert for an elderly individual, and said that after he served, he went to college on the G.I. bill, and stuff.
Being that I was heavily raised by my maternal grandparents, I've always had a good respect for the elderly (a lot of people my age don't, unfortunately), and everybody's life is a story unto itself (sometimes a whole bunch of them).
Well, a day or two ago (June 27?), I was at the pool and looking at the bulletin board. They have all sorts of stuff like when the pool hours change from 06:45 to 07:45 (already done), to when they shift back to 06:45 (in August), other stuff about when concerts are in town, an automotive display somewhere, and I was talking to a guy about some stuff, and somehow it segued into aviation, and he was surprised that I was knowledgeable about aviation history particularly WWII, and wanted to introduce me to his grandfather.
When he did, it was the same guy I met a year or two earlier. As I talked to him, he had some strange mannerisms, and a tendency to repeat himself. He seems to have dementia, which his son confirmed, and apparently has had it to some degree for several years (it just wasn't noteworthy when I met him): When I was talking to the son, I mentioned that my grandmother (the one that died earlier this month), when she first had dementia, it seemed as if she was just suffering some temporary loopiness, but when she started misplacing things (she put a burger in the pantry, and forgot that she placed it there; she would then wonder how the hell a burger ended up there).
He's the same age as Bill Runnels was (b. 1925), but is still alive.
Our memories make us who we are, and, as they say: If you break your arm, your still you; you break your brain: You're not you. Scary stuff.
About a year or two ago, I saw an elderly man with a hat that had U.S.A.A.F. written on it, exiting the pool. Almost immediately I said "you served prior to 1947...", he seemed surprised that I knew that, and I told him I was an aviation buff. Since he had a pin of sorts on his hat that had a marking that indicated he served in the 15th Air Force. It turned out he worked on B-24's and, at least some of his work involved ECM. Either way, he was pretty alert for an elderly individual, and said that after he served, he went to college on the G.I. bill, and stuff.
Being that I was heavily raised by my maternal grandparents, I've always had a good respect for the elderly (a lot of people my age don't, unfortunately), and everybody's life is a story unto itself (sometimes a whole bunch of them).
Well, a day or two ago (June 27?), I was at the pool and looking at the bulletin board. They have all sorts of stuff like when the pool hours change from 06:45 to 07:45 (already done), to when they shift back to 06:45 (in August), other stuff about when concerts are in town, an automotive display somewhere, and I was talking to a guy about some stuff, and somehow it segued into aviation, and he was surprised that I was knowledgeable about aviation history particularly WWII, and wanted to introduce me to his grandfather.
When he did, it was the same guy I met a year or two earlier. As I talked to him, he had some strange mannerisms, and a tendency to repeat himself. He seems to have dementia, which his son confirmed, and apparently has had it to some degree for several years (it just wasn't noteworthy when I met him): When I was talking to the son, I mentioned that my grandmother (the one that died earlier this month), when she first had dementia, it seemed as if she was just suffering some temporary loopiness, but when she started misplacing things (she put a burger in the pantry, and forgot that she placed it there; she would then wonder how the hell a burger ended up there).
He's the same age as Bill Runnels was (b. 1925), but is still alive.