Man Crossing an Ice Field

Abstract: This essays explores the loss of a family member to a degenerative cognitive disease. The husband of the narrator, a once brilliant scientist, progressively begins to lose his memory. After several months, the husband has begun to lose his personality and is quickly angered. The narrator and their son must navigate this new, unknown terrain of who their loved one is and who they will continuously become. The narrator explains her own health problems that have arisen since her husband has developed Alzheimer’s. They help lead her to the decision to put her husband in a home to get the support she struggles to provide for him. The journey of the wife losing her marriage and the life that she once knew while trying to stay strong for her husband who is losing himself too.