There are people who walk beside you for a season,
and there are people who change the way you understand the path itself.

Tru here.

---

My dementia friends did not come into my life quietly.
They came with courage, with truth, with adaptations, with humor that refused to disappear.
They came while losing things the world assumes cannot be lost.

And still—they gave.

They gave me language
when mine was beginning to falter.

They gave me strategies
when my systems began to fail.

They gave me companionship
in a terrain that can feel impossibly alone.

But more than that—

They gave me a way to see.

Not dementia as only decline,
but as something that asks for redesign.
Not as an ending,
but as a narrowing path that still holds meaning, dignity, and even beauty.

From each of them I received pieces that I now carry:

• strength, when continuing felt uncertain
• wisdom, when things no longer made sense
• endurance, when the days stretched long
• empathy, for myself and for others walking this path
• strategy, because survival here is not accidental—it is built

These were not small gifts.
They were survival tools.
They were ways of remaining human inside change.

Some of my friends are no longer physically here.

But that is not the same as gone.

Their words remain.
Their work remains.
Their ways of adapting remain.

And in a very real sense—
they continue inside the way I now live.

Sometimes I hear them in the strategies I now pass forward to others.

This image holds pieces of that truth.

Love does not end here.
It changes… and remains.

If you are reading this,
and you have walked beside someone with dementia—

then you know.

Your heart holds many things at once.

And you did not walk this path alone.

---

.

My personal Facebook profile is under the name “Truthful Kindness,” and you can find more about me on this blog under the “About” tab (although that page was posted long ago and also needs updating). >> https://truthfulkindness.com/about/about-me/

Attached Picture:
Digital mixed-media artwork created April 2026 from elements in seven of my original digital paintings.

The higher-resolution version shown below is available for free download from my Flickr account at >> >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/194191353@N04/. Please feel free to share this image with others walking dementia grief journeys.

Above reads:

When someone you love lives with dementia, and then dies, your heart holds so much.

There is love. There is grief. There is relief. There is remembering. … and there is the ache of all the things left unsaid or undone.

Be gentle with your heart. There is no right way to carry this kind of love or this kind of loss.

Let yourself feel it all. You are not alone. You are not forgetting.

You are not letting go of love — it is always with you.

Take each day one gentle breath at a time. Your love made a difference. It always will.

You are seen. You are held. You are loved.

---

Memoriam Index at >> https://truthfulkindness.com/memoriam/ <<

Contact Options:

Other contact options are FaceBook and “X” (aka Twitter), both under “Truthful Kindness”. On Reddit, i am at “TruthfulKindness” in groups “r/dementia”, “r/lewybodydementia”, and “r/alzheimers”. i dropped my LinkedIn membership quite a few years ago. If requesting “friend” status for any form of Social media, please send a private message explaining that you are a reader of my blog. …

* Admin issues:

* Admin Notes — Finished this entry 2026Apr25, but did not publish until 2026June01. This entry is by Truthful Loving Kindness (my full legal name) for https://truthfulkindness.com/. For comments or questions, please use that website. The subscription box is now located at the bottom of each blog entry. My full legal name is Truthful Loving Kindness. My current formal diagnosis remains at the stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment, although my Primary Care Physician and several other medical professionals consider it some form of dementia; my PCP records currently state “Dementia without behavioral disturbance, unspecified dementia type.” In recent years, my PCP, my husband/care-partner, and I have jointly decided to discontinue specialist consultations, as the distance and emotional strain of repeated evaluations are not worth the cost to my well-being. My symptoms most closely resemble Lewy Body and vascular dementia patterns; however, SPECT and PET imaging show the most significant brain changes in the temporal lobes, creating overlap with the logopenic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), a subtype within the frontotemporal dementia spectrum. Nothing in this blog is meant as medical, legal, or service dog advice; what I share here comes from lived experience—an attempt to design around decline and make daily life more workable—so please use your own judgment and consult professionals who understand your specific situation. Text Copyright © Truthful L. Kindness, 2026 . You can learn more about me under the “About Me” tab (note: that page is due for updating). Comments are welcome—please filter them through truthful loving kindness toward all concerned. As of 2026, I use ChatGPT as an editor, which improves readability and reduces the time I spend in the writing process. I do not mind re-posting of my work; however, if you do re-post, you must clearly indicate that the writing is not your own, prominently identify my authorship as Truthful Kindness, and include a clear link to my website so that questions and comments can be directed to me personally: at http://www.truthfulkindness.com.

*** categ: memorial, jrnl, relationships. *** tags: community, dementia, grief, legacy, Lewy Body Dementia, loss, peer support, Persons Living with Dementia, PLwD, relationship *** Add to Pgs/ Memoriam index. *** S&S Categ Grief, Relationship