Mike Oliver is an opinion columnist who has Lewy body dementia. For this column, he culls posts from his blog where he is counting down his 678 vinyl records to raise awareness of this deadly, common, but not well known form of dementia.
Singer songwriter Peter Himmelman has a song about visiting a woman named Susan in the hospital. It becomes apparent Susan has no use of her muscles and can only talk by using her eyelids to build words on a special computer screen attached by electrodes.
Though not mentioned in the song, ALS was what she had, a degenerative brain disease that became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the world watched in the 1930s the baseball great succumb to it.
Himmelman sings about his visit, a moment that had a profound effect on him:
And the words come ticking out and the words bring us together
And the words come ticking out and the words must keep you sane
Susan I owe you an apology
Susan I owe you an apology
For all the days I just let slide right through my hands
You are the woman with the strength of 10,000 men