A short portrait of Alzheimer's
john battemabattema music
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Story behind the song
During a conversation with my mom the topic turned to my grandmother and her lost battle against Alzheimer's. Mom mentioned that it was particularly hard when she came in and saw Grandma carrying a baby doll around. Apparently (at least at this particular home) once Alzheimer's patients reach a certain stage the attendants will give them dolls, somehow it invokes some basic maternal instinct and they often seem to believe that the doll is a real baby. So for Mom, it was hard going in and seeing Grandma finally carrying around her own doll, a reminder that her grip on reality is rapidly coming loose.
It's such a strange and unnerving thought, that picture of an elderly woman wandering around, caring for her plastic baby as if it were her own. An otherwise perfectly calm and even positive scene, lost under the shadow of reality and dementia.
Anyway, shortly afterwards I sat at the piano and out came this weird, sad little piece. It's not very complicated at all, just a series of cyclical, mostly major chords moving without ever quite resolving with some added effects just to color the mood. It's hardly anything too exciting but somehow it really seemed to capture the feelings I felt at that moment.