I watched a movie last night called Away From Her. It was about a couple in their late 50s/early 60s who live in Ontario and the wife (Fiona, played by Julie Christie) starts becoming forgetful and the story starts off hinting around that she has Alzheimer’s. So, before her mind completely goes, she talks with her husband (Grant) and decides that she wants to be admitted to this facility where they deal with Alzheimer’s patients. The husband is reluctant, especially when the facility’s director says that he’s not allowed to see his wife for the first 30 days after she goes in (supposedly to help them adjust to being there). Then, when he goes to visit her for the first time, she has made friends with this guy and is treating him, more or less, like her husband – taking care of him and spending all her time with him – and she doesn’t remember who her real husband even is. But, he goes there every day to see her and just watches her dote on this other man.
The story was so heartbreaking – just to see these two people who were so in love (though there’s also an undercurrent of the husband having strayed with female students at the college where he was a professor many years before) and the beautiful life they had together just slowly torn from their grip. I think it’s always harder in a situation like that for the person who has to watch their spouse or loved one slipping away. And, I think it’s harder to go through something like that than to have the person die. In the case of the former, the person is still there, but you still don’t have them, so it’s the worst of both worlds – you suffer the loss, but the person is still around, so you feel like you can’t let go. God, I don’t know how people can handle that. It just made me so emotional watching it – because of the love and wonderful life they had together, because the lady was trying to keep a sense of humour and dignity about herself and to spare her husband the burden of caring for her, and because of the grief he had to go through in seeing her slowly slipping away until eventually she didn’t have any concept of who he was. Also, I have a soft spot for old people. I just think aging and dying and illness all suck. It just seems so cruel that we come into the world and then get stronger and smarter and become independent, only to have it all slowly ripped from your grip. What a fucked up concept it all is – life and death. What’s the fucking point, then? *SIGH* I try not to think about this stuff too often – just too upsetting! But, the movie was good and obviously effective in conveying the emotions of the story, so good on you, Sarah Polley!
On a much happier note, I went to the park today for a walk and it was raining. I pulled on a touque and my red Old Navy hoodie and filled the pouch with peanuts. I took a leisurely stroll around my usual route and the drizzle was coming down lightly but steadily. I got semi-attacked by a full-sized squirrel today and I thought he was going to turn into a stalker! I stopped to feed a couple of peanuts to some of the ducks and he jumped on the side of my leg and then off again waiting for me to give him another one. Then, even after I had given him a couple, he continued to follow me as I was walking away. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to break out into a sprint to lose him!
I really like walking in the park when it’s raining. There’s usually no one around and it gives the place an even greater sense of peace. I don’t mind the rain at all, especially if it’s just a little drizzle, but even that seems to keep most people away, which suits me just fine!
I watched the Smallville Season 7 Premiere tonight and it was OK. I didn’t really feel any sense of anxiety or anything about what was happening in the episode – I totally knew they wouldn’t kill off Chloe OR Lana, so where’s the mystery? I also thought it sucked that they only kept the Bizarro Clark Kent around for one episode and the fight scene in which Clark kills him was so boring and over too quickly. It would have been fun if they’d kept him in for another one or two episodes. Considering he was supposed to be so much stronger than Clark, it didn’t take much to get him out of the picture. But, I’m interested to see what Supergirl is going to be like since they’re introducing her into the show now.
Haven’t done much else this evening. Have laundry in the dryer (oops – better go get that now…)…ok, done. Just chillin’ watching some TV and playing that Brain Evolution game on my PDA. God, that stuff is addictive!
I just beat Huyen from the HOW list for only the second time in Scrabble on Facebook – by a hundred points, even! She’s a really good player, so that’s quite the accomplishment on my part! lol Thank you Scrabble Gods, thank you!