Cover Photo: Dorothy Young
Dorothy Young

On Vanishing

Alzheimer’s disease, Houdini, and America’s invisible caregivers

voila!

I have decided for the following reasons to take my own life. This is a decision taken in a normal state of mind and is fully considered. I have Alzheimer's disease and do not want to let it progress any further. I do not want to put my family or myself through the agony of this terrible disease.The New York Times

Thanatron

he

especially

our

infantilizationignoringobjectificationimpositiondisparagementwithholdingbanishment

He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.

not

She knows.Poof! Thank You.

via activa,

The Last Supper head

future

mind over matter, spiritual awareness over unreal suffering

fromWill you take this journey with me?




Lynn Casteel Harper is a Baptist minister, chaplain, and essayist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review online, The Huffington Post, New Delta Review, CALYX, and elsewhere. “On Vanishing” is part of her book-in-progress, When I Have Dementia, which received a Deming Fund grant. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina. lynncasteelharper.wordpress.com