Losing words

Strange how it happens and we adjust. I understand now how people with dementia eventually lose the ability to communicate.

For a long time, when Bob looks for the remote control for the radio (he's quite an NPR addict :), he asks, "Where is the radio?" I can't correct him or get him to use the right word so ... if "radio" works, then radio it is.

This morning I realized that a new word change had occurred. After we'd taken a walk, done some yard work, and gone inside, I asked him if he wanted to shave. He looked at me quizzically. I repeated thinking he'd not heard.
He had heard; he repeated the word "shave" curiously. Finally I said, using hand gestures, "You know, where you use the razor on your cheeks?"
He smiled widely, "Oh, you mean 'do I want to scrape?' That's what it's called: scraping."
Ok with me, I will try to remember that new word next time.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."