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Doling Hope

My friend D has a widowed father who lives in an assisted living facility. He has been suffering from dementia for several years and at eight five, there has not much to do but to watch the gradual slide of his mental abilities and hope for the best. He only sometimes recognizes D but instinctively trusts her even on the days she is a stranger to him. She has pulled together an album of back and white pictures of their family going back a couple of generations. Other relatives have lent her what they had. Sometimes, he recognizes people from the distant past - a cousin, his mother, his wife when they were newly wed. That has been D's way to maintain a tenuous connection with her father.

Last week she found out that half of the patients in that facility had tested positive for covid and her father was one among them. She is no longer allowed to meet him or even speak with him - the residents can't be trusted to use cellphone so the facility does not allow it. This has been a hard year for D overall and now this is loss she is bracing for. She is not optimistic about her father's chances of pulling through but wants to believe miracles are possible. In the meanwhile not being able to see him or even talk to him is what makes her the most frantic.

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