Frustration
On November 25, 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer began seeing a new patient known as Auguste D. At a mere 51 years of age, his new patient was unable to remember her entire name, her husband's name or how long she had been in the hospital. After Auguste D.'s death, Dr. Alzheimer would discover plaques and tangles covering her brain and Alzheimer's disease would be born. But for the time being, both the doctor and Auguste D. were helplessly confounded by her declining mental abilities. On that first day in the hospital, Dr. Alzheimer tried to have her write her name. She failed several times before she looked up at him, expasperated, and announced,"I have lost myself."

"[I can] hardly write ten lines without blunders... Into the bargain I have not one rag of memory." — Author Jonathan Swift

Periods of Contentment
In the last years of his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson was so wracked by senility that the renowned author could not even pen his own name. Oddly, he seemed to accept the loss of what most would consider his greatest asset, his mind. Amidst the disease he told a friend, "I have lost my mental faculties but am perfectly well." This is a surprising statement from a man who had earlier written about memory,"It holds us to our family, to our friends. Hereby a home is possible; hereby only a new fact has value." Emerson's acceptance of his memory loss probably had a a lot to do with the thinking of the time. Until recently, people simply believed that elderly senility was a part of the aging process. However, it's possible that Emerson's apathy was also part of the disease process. Particularly in the later stages, people with Alzheimer's often become complacent, seemingly unaware of the magnitude of their loss. Perhaps this is because thoughts only last for seconds. The person with advanced Alzheimer's lives in the moment and has little ability to consider his or her situation.

"There is pain in forgetfulness, but sometimes there is something delicious in oblivion." — Morris F.

Isolation
In his late 70's, composer Aaron Copland's memory began to visibly slip away from him. In one man's description of the elderly Copland,"He forgot questions you asked and answers he gave, and occasionally he had to be reminded where he was, but he had not lost his charm." Amazingly, the confused Copland was still able to conduct for many years after the disease's onset. In fact, he could conduct his famous work "Appalachian Spring" up until the very end of his life. Still, when his public career came to a close, the famous composer suffered the plight of many Alzheimer's victims, spending his last year in isolation. With the loss of communication skills often comes the loss of social companionship, despite the fact that human attention is craved and appreciated even during the bitter end of the disease.

"Another really crazy thing about Alzheimer's, nobody really wants to talk to you any longer. They're maybe afraid of us, I don't know if that's the trouble or not, I assume it is, but we can assure everybody that we know Alzheimer's is not catching." — Cary Smith Henderson, "Partial View"