Dust

Late in the day yesterday I got an email from Frank in Princeton saying that the wife of someone we knew had passed away after a long struggle with early onset Alzheimer's. She may have been 5-7 years older than me, but not much more than that. I remember running into her in the thrift store down the alley off Nassau not far from where we lived. I think she was a little embarrassed to be seen there but I sure wasn't. I have a jacket in my closet right now from that thrift store -- the jacket I wore pretty much every other day the first quarter of 2008 when I was working at Goldman Sachs as the financial crisis was raining down upon us. I also got one of my absolute favorite garments of all time there, a super-soft lightweight flannel that passed as a work shirt and that I also sported to 85 Broad that winter, feeling a little mischievous as I did so (which should give you some idea of how lame WASPs are).

But I digress. She died. I guess I should say her name, Joyce, married to Alex, so that if I see this post in a decade or so I'll remember who I was talking about.

I commented to Mary that it was perhaps a blessing, and Mary said no it wasn't and she hates it when people say that. But Mary has never watched a family member have Alzheimer's or dementia for a long time. All of her family have been entirely with us until they passed, which has been truly a blessing.