Malcolm Young, age 61, suffering from early onset, rapid progressing dementia; he cannot recall things that happened two minutes previously, and he doesn't recognize people he's known all his life. The person in the above photo (which was taken when Malcolm was still healthy) no longer exists, although his body still does. And that is the worst of tragedies.
A Soul Lost
(Though the Body Lives On)
That the light has dimmed
Behind vivid rainbow eyes
Fills me with despair
With love for someone who touched my life,
Cie
Blooming Psycho previously wrote about Malcolm in this poem.
He touched a lot of lives for the better.
If anyone should have interest in my further thoughts on the matter, they can be found here. Keep in mind that the linked blog does have an adult content gate, mostly for language and potentially disturbing themes. The post contains strong language and the discussion of death, including suicide.
Some of the posts on the blog contain explicit erotic material, mostly verbal.
The linked post is probably safe for work. The blog in its entirety might be considered NSFW for occasional nudity and depictions of sexuality.
So sad when you walk like that dead to the world.. one might wonder if something still lives inside .. trapped .. never to come out. Interesting how our poems had complementary thought.. mine with a mind without a body and yours a body without a mind..
ReplyDeleteI like to think his mind has already moved on to what comes next. I've taken care of people with dementia since 1988. I watched my own father succumb, though his was a different variety. He recognized his family up till the end, but was very confused about things that were happening around him.
DeleteThanks kindly for coming by. I loved your piece.
You and Björn seemed to have been swimming in the same waters of thought...
DeleteLife and time have various hues , sometimes of happiness and sometimes of sadness.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a sadness one.
DeleteThanks for stopping by.
To lose one's memory is to lose one's past, and that means losing one's very self. I can't imagine anything harder, both for the person themselves, and for those who love them.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a kick in the gut. He was married to the same person for almost 35 years, had two children, and he and his younger brother were like they were attached at the hip. I can imagine how horrible it must be for all of them. It was horrible for me to watch my father's decline due to vascular dementia, but at least there was the tiny caveat that he recognized the people he loved up to the end.
DeleteThanks for stopping by.
For me it is not possible to read the poemseparately from its history. How very very hard to lose someone so alive.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I think the poem and the history are deeply intertwined too. This guy was always very alert to everything, he always looked like he was taking things in and processing them and cooking up something. He only had a basic education, but he was extremely intelligent. That's what kills me.
DeleteThank you for visiting. :-)
poignant and true.
ReplyDeleteZQ
Thank you. :-)
DeleteVery well written, Cara. If I were to read it without the prefixing comments I still would have known of the situation. My father had dementia but his came on when he was about 95 (he died at age 97). He broke his hip soon after, it could not be repaired nor would it heal before of his age, so he had to finish his life either in his lowboy wheel chair or in bed.
ReplyDeleteIt made my day when I visited and he would call me Jim. Most times he called me by other family names so I figured it was my name's turn to come up that day. Still I remember those days and would like to think he knew me then.
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My dad had vascular dementia. He died at 74. He had a hemorrhagic stroke at 68. He then developed congestive heart failure. He had another stroke, resulting in a fall that tore his left quadricep, leaving him wheelchair bound. His vascular system was a mess, and he continued to decline steadily. In the end he was in the hospice center.
DeleteI count myself fortunate that my father recognized his family to the end, although everything else was a confusing hell to him.
Thank you for visiting.
When I commented, I had not realized that Malcom Young was of the AC/DC group. My favorite song from them was "Highway to Hell." It was disconcerting to me that Bon Scott died, young, so soon after singing it.
Delete..
Jim, yeah, that was another tragic loss. Truth be told, Bon was pretty much my first big crush. I was 15 years old when he died. I was heartbroken.
DeleteMalcolm tended to take himself out of the spotlight, so it's not surprising that it didn't really click. He just wanted to play, he really didn't care about the whole stardom aspect. It's one of the things I liked about him. He was just a very humble person in spite of the fame.
That is hard to deal, whether a person is a celebrity or not. Nicely written short poem.
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly.
DeleteI think it's particularly awful for me because when I was in my troubled youth, this person was an inspiration to me. He never acted like a "rock star." He was a nice guy who played music and seemed like a bit of an outcast himself.
It's also horrifying to me because I take care of people with dementia (and watched my own father go through it.) To see a mind wiped away is just the worst.
Thanks for visiting.
What a difficult thing not to remember... And how terrible it has to be to watch the one who can no longer remember us.
ReplyDeleteWatching it may be the worst of things. Seeing the light go out of their eyes is awful. We caregivers of dementia patients have an expression that the light's on but nobody's home. However, from my perspective, the light is no longer on. There's just a ghost haunting the house.
DeleteEvery time I look at this man's eyes, it's like a knife through the heart. He was always so alert and intelligent and so fundamentally decent. It's a great loss.
My initiation to skateboarding and gateway into punk was TNT. How splintered is memory, how fragile. ~
ReplyDelete