FaceApp and the savage shock of aging

For many of us, with aging comes the responsibility of caregiving. To “accompany” someone on their journey into loss and into darkness: Can we ever really do this? “It’s a killer,” a friend who cares for her husband says to me. “It’s savage.”

Advertisement

For many caregivers, the days are marked by gradual losses, until the loved one no longer remembers what happened yesterday or that morning; he can’t recall things they did together; their relationship is no longer one of reciprocity. Then she is talking to him very patiently, as if he is a child, or loudly and crossly, as if he is a very naughty child; she is feeding him as if he were a baby; then she is washing him; then she is wiping his bottom. She is clearing up the mess and trying not to feel disgust for this body she once desired.

FaceApp may help prepare us for wrinkles and graying temples; it does not prepare us for this.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement