Dementia - Daily flash comp

Dementia

Drawing the curtains was a sign that the day was over.

The chairs in the common room were pushed neatly under the tables as the elderly residents shuffled out to their respective bedrooms and two staff nurses politely encouraged them on their way.

One elderly grey haired lady in a loose floral blouse and fawn slacks stopped shuffling and looked around with confusion on her face.

"What is it Josie?" asked the nurse behind her.

Josie scanned the empty room.

"My teddy. Where's my teddy?"

The elderly lady walked past the nurse to an arm chair in front of a large television that ceased to blast sound and colour into the room.

"Did you have him with you when you came in, Josie?" asked the nurse following her.

"I always have him. I used to have three until you took two away."

The nurse joined in the search and then spied a large brown bear under one of the chairs.

"There he is Josie, you must have dropped him when you got out of your chair."

The elderly lady walked briskly to the table where the nurse pointed and in that instant, seeing her teddy bear flat on its back, she remembered the repressed past she had lived.

Her three babies lying in their cots, her husband driving her and their boys in his Land Rover on a safari trip, her meticulously kept house by the sea side, playing the piano, painting, knitting winter jumpers for her growing sons, pruning the roses in her garden under a warm summer sun.

And then it was gone.

The nurse bent and picked up the bear and handed it to the elderly lady.

She clutched it tightly but didn't know why.