joan rater on wishin' and hopin'

This episode was obviously about a lot of things, but for me, it was really about Alzheimer’s disease. How devastating it is to families, how it turns spouses and children into caretakers, how it robs people of their memory, their identity. The concept of someone with this disease having a lucid day is real. The disease varies for everyone, but experts we talked to said that patients have bad days and good days and then sometimes they have great days where it seems like they are their old selves. Maybe it’s a moment, maybe an hour, for some a whole afternoon, but we were fascinated with the idea of getting this time, this gift, and knowing that it’s only temporary. What would you do with that one day?

Ellis and Richard. With him she lets her guard down and we see her be vulnerable. And when she tells Richard that she wishes she could do things differently, she made so many mistakes, if she could do it all over, she’d be fine with being happy, like Meredith says she’s happy, that she’d be satisfied to just be ordinary …

Because that’s really what it’s all about. We have to cherish the time that we have here, and love the people who surround and support us, even if they make us crazy. Because things happen. Brain surgery, and Alzheimer’s and weddings. And the worst thing is to come to the end of your life and realize, like Ellis, that you should have tried harder.

the "i'm so unfinished" sentence, remember?