Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for May 30, 2022

What? What?

Supposedly, forgetting why you went to the refrigerator is not in itself a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. Not recognizing the refrigerator is.

A relative has dementia. She was visiting the other day and asked my wife how her brother was doing. He has been dead for eleven years.

This is a sad arc that I will probably try to avoid; I had an aunt who died of dementia. When she could still speak, she told us it was like a ‘big black cloud lowered itself into her head and she forgot whatever she was doing.’ The first time that happened to her, she was driving and she literally forgot how to do that. This is a terrible disease…

I read an article on Wiki on Lewy’s Body Disease. It’s a horrible form of dementia similar to Alzheimer’s.

Actress Estelle Getty (Sophia on THE GOLDEN GIRLS) died of that ailment in 2008.

Lacy Davenport was an ethical Republican. Little did we suspect at the time that she’d be among the last of a dying breed.

Watching a person with Alzheimer’s is like standing on the shoreline of a small, calm lake where you have a vacation home. You glance over to the boat dock and notice that your canoe has slipped its mooring rope. By the time you get to the end of the dock, the light, pleasant breeze has blown the canoe away from the dock and thus, out of reach. Your only possible action is to watch your canoe drift away.

Someone once described Alzheimer as a “kindly thief”, in that it takes everything from you, but in the end, you don’t know it anymore.

Five more days of these depressing Alzheimer’s jokes, then on Sunday, June 5th, we should return to Mike and Kim. But since Sundays are replaced with original contemporary work you’ll have to go to https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1997/06/22 for that.

Eary stages, my foot!

Who is on first!

I know Trudeau is generally trying to make light of this here, but I wish he wouldn’t. Lacy is beloved and this storyline is going to hurt.

But remember, folks: It’s better to be forced to live this way than to be allowed to end your own life, because suicide is selfish and wrong!

My deepest sympathies for all who have suffered from this in one way or another.

This is not funny, but pardon me, probably because my mother is at this point.

These strips DO NOT have to be rerun. Alzheimer’s IS NOT funny. I don’t know who makes the decision about that, but Trudeau needs to wake up to the pain that decision is causing and put a stop to it.

Members of the family have suffered with dementia, none from Alzheimer’s.

Although Alzheimer’s has the biggest fundraising apparatus and public relations operation, it is a TYPE of dementia and not the majority of dementia sufferers.

I would like to see a cure or care for Alzheimer’s but more attention to other types of dementia would be most welcome!

The name “comics” is misleading. “Graphic stories” is really a better name for them. Some are funny, some reflect life as it is – funny, sad, heartwarming, scary, or a mix up of all of it.