The doctor continues to smile despite the fact that my uncle's illness is evolving into full-blown Alzheimers or some equally awful dementia-related malady. Today the doctor smiled again when he told him there is no possible escape from the malaise which eventually will rob him of his faculties and life will become a living hell from the moment he wakes up until bedtime when he puts on his blindfold and plunges into the inky blackness of unconsciousness.

 

As the brain continues fo deteriorate, his memory will dwindle to the point where all he can remember are a few meager details of his past such as the faces of strangers briefly encountered during long rides on trains, boats and planes. And he may also recall the feel of a woman's breasts withering to desiccated prunes in his bare hands. Then come the invasion of insomniacal nights accompanied by blurred, indiscernible images dancing before his eyes as he is sucked deeper and deeper into oblivion's lagoon.

 

Never able to master the fears that haunted him since childhood, he will stagger through his remaining days like a drunken sailor mumbling incomprehensible fragments of words and phrases.  Once a child prodigy with a 150 IQ accustomed to wildly cheering crowds and standing ovations, he is now a forgotten nobody mumbling and stumbling into the night as the smiling doctor waves goodbye.