While I was visiting family at home last week, I had a startling revelation. Most of the folks on my mother’s side of the family have suffered from dementia and/or memory loss.

I’ve been watching my mother gradually lose her ability to remember what she is going to do ‘today’. She wanders back and forth to her calendar several times a day just to try to orient herself. She still lives alone and does very well at feeding herself. She is meticulous about her medications. She has checklists for those and sets them out to take at certain times of the day. So far she is okay and my brother and sister live nearby to keep an eye on things. She just turned 89. But she seems so lost at times. Like me, she is a B blood type.

Her older sister will be turning 97 next month. She has always been the woman I looked up to most and tried to emulate. She taught me Latin and English in junior high school. Now, when we visit, she doesn’t seem to even recognize my mother. There just doesn’t seem to be any spark remaining of who this woman used to be.

I hear that my mother’s other sister who lives in Denver (she’s 86) is also having problems remembering much. She doesn’t recognize her grandchildren and spends most of her days sleeping.

Another sister comitted suicide in her mid-50's. I don't know the whole story there.

My grandfather had a violent dementia as he aged. He eventually had to be cared for in a 24 hour facility as he was too combative to be cared for at home.

I didn’t realize till last week that there probably is some heredity working here. I don't know what blood type these people are/were, but I imagine a few were B's. I don’t want to end up confused and in the dark like the older folks in my family. I ask myself if it is inevitable. It’s a bit scary to think I might have to face a similar future. I’m hoping by following the BTD lifestyle that I can avoid this future.

One can always hope.