This little email "story" was forwarded to me by my husband's brother. I replied: "That's a cute story. I didn't say realistic, just cute. This joke was not invented by someone who understands Alzheimer's."

And it certainly was not, as you will see if you read on. (R rated. Proceed at your own risk.) This falls into the "Alzheimer's is just a forgetfulness disease" category.
Anyway, I chuckled slightly, like this: "heh." The second to bottom-most line there though, really sums up the ignorance of the general populace. Alzheimer's has it's advantages? Really?


Roger,85,married Jenny, a lovely 25 year old.

Since her new husband is so old, Jenny decides that after their wedding she and Roger should have separate bedrooms, because she is concerned that her new but aged husband may over-exert himselfif they spend the entire night together.

After the wedding festivities Jenny prepares herself for bed and theexpected knock on the door. Sure enough the knock comes, the door opens and there is Roger, her 85 year old groom, ready for action. They unite as one. All goes well, Roger takes leave of his bride, and she prepares to go to sleep.

After a few minutes, Jenny hears another knock on her bedroom door, and it's Roger, Again he is ready for more 'action'. Somewhat surprised, Jenny consents for more coupling. When the newlyweds are done, Roger kisses his bride, bids her a fond good night and leaves.

She is set to go to sleep again, but, aha, you guessed it - Roger is back again, rapping on the door and is as fresh as a 25-year-old, ready for more 'action'. And, once more they enjoy each other.

But as Roger gets set to leave again, his young bride says to him, 'I am thoroughly impressed that at your age you can perform so well and so often. I have been with guys less than a third of your age who were only good once. You are truly a great lover, Roger..'

Roger, somewhat embarrassed, turns to Jenny and says: 'You mean I've been here already tonight?'

The moral of the story:

Don't be afraid of getting old, Alzheimer's has its advantages.

PS.. Have I sent this to you already?

I didn't read that he actually had Alzheimer's. I read that as an aside, someone mistakenly thought that his memory LOSS was indicative of Alzheimer's, which is simply stupid. What if that line had read, "Parkinson's Dementia" has its advantages, or "Pick's Disease" has its advantages, or Lewy Body Disease" has its advantages. The average person on the street wouldn't understand that, would they. So, everyone assumes that if you are forgetful, you have Alzheimer's Disease.

Early on, I'd receive those insensitive emails, and it took a personal letter to them , one at a time, that got MY message across. Nothing about Alzheimer's is funny, not one little bit.

I understand how you felt. I'm sorry.

In defense of my b-i-l, he's not insensitive. He was completely open to my reply to him in which I explained how well that joke exemplified the general public's misunderstanding of AD. Also, the b-i-l who sent it is involved with my husband when he can be, so he's not ignorant of the truth.

My purpose was more to point out that if this joke is making the email rounds, then it's kind of too bad AD is once again being promoted as less devastating than it is.

Nah...not to make too big a deal of it. In fact, one of my AlzSpouse Board friends pm'd me to say she found it to be a kind of funny joke, actually. I said, yeah...but more funny if it comes from one of us, because we know that we all comprehend the depth of the situation and are not joking out of ignorance.

Anyway, here I am making too big a deal of it! I'm really not that sensitive, nor are my feelings easily hurt. Let's say I just made it a "teachable moment" for my bro-in-law.

I've always been able to find humor in almost every situation. Not this one. I don't find any of the Alzheimer jokes out there funny. And I agree with Emily - a joke like that one making the rounds contributes to the public's ignorance. Are we making too much fuss over a simple joke? Maybe, but considering what we live with every day, it's understandable.

joang

I,too, received this as an email "joke".....not funny along with all the rest. But even less funny is when someone in
conversation has a "memory fog" and gives a chuckle and says "must be my oldtimers disease" and I want to say,
"not even, you have NO idea"!!

Memory fog as it is called does come with some conditions..I have Meniere's Syndrome and when it is active, I am in remission now, I get this memory fog thing...and I type words backwards too. It is really annoying. The difference between a dementia and memory fog as far as I am concerned, is that the MF is something we are aware of in relation to the condition and the fact that when,as in my case, I got into the remission, the fog went away.