Short Stories

Lynne is scared by hearing a man’s voice repeating, “Something is rotten ….”
After a caregiver and I calmed her down, he showed her a book of poems, 180 More by Billy Collins.
Lynne said, I love that book.
I think she is rememberng lines from Billy Collins’ peoms.

Lynne has told me and several others that she is scared by a man’s voice. Luna, the care director mentioned it several times, so they have called for a psychiatric visit with her. [I hope Lynne doesn’t think he’s the man behind the voice].

She told friend Nancy, “A man keeps saying, ‘You are loved.’ But nobody believes me.”

Nancy calmed her down, “I believe you saw something that seemed like a man in your apartment.”

That would be spooky. Interestingly though, she never sees a man, only hears the voice. Friend Donna emailed me about a video chat because Lynne was upset. It seemed like Lynne had a hallucination about someone being in her room offering her M&M’s. [note: I drop off trail mix with M&Ms every morning and staff delivers them to her].

Lynne is losing cognition steadily now. Sentences are shorter, she often can’t complete them, and she repeats herself. Neverethess, she can chat even though she may mix up memories [I do that too]. The last call about the man’s voice might have alerted us to the source of the voice. A Caregiver called me because Lynne was upset by a man’s voice that repeated, Something is rotten….
I said, Something is rotten in Denmark
How did you know that, he asked?
It’s a famous saying.
The caregiver picked up one of her books to distract her, 180 more: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, by Billy Collins.

Lynne said, I love that book.

I said, “Lynne you’re hearing Billy Collins voice saying poetry to you. But actually it’s your memory repeating his poems. Your memory is working.”

I emphasized the poems are uplifting. So when his poem says, “You are loved,” he is affirming she is lovable. She doesnt’ have to worry about that voice. It’s her memory working well. I’ve restated it two or three times. I told Luna we found the man. She laughed, “We’re a team.”
We’ll see if that helps. At least it’s a nice way to comfort her and read her another poem. I ordered the book for me to read poems to her. And we’ll if the pyschiatric visit confirms it’s mostly her memory for poems.

Each day brings new puzzles to answer to solve to give us a little hope for a little while.