Last night, I watched a lovely short film, “Love at First Sight” on public television by ImageMakers. I was touched to the heart of my soul because this story is about someone who has significant memory loss living in an Assisted Living community who falls in love.
We all remember the adrenalin and that rush of positive emotions when we fall in love for the first or even second time. Falling in love is one of the human emotions with the most visceral of all feelings. You want to shout for joy, you can hardly eat and your thoughts are only of the other – you desire for nothing other than being with the object of this love.
This short film can’t be downloaded or purchased – but you can search your local channels to view. (If you subscribe to Comcast, you can watch it on On Demand.) It should be an educational film shown to every caregiver, both professional and family caregivers, of someone with a memory disorder.
The lesson is that when you don’t have a memory for a period of time due to a progressive disease, you can still be in the moment and what a joy to be able to re-live falling in love everyday. The gift in this movie is that the object of his love is able to be in the moment and enjoy the feelings of falling in love with her spouse everyday. She doesn’t correct him, she just lavishes in the moments with him. You know her heart longs for what was lost, but she doesn’t let her grief interfere with her ability to enjoy the shear pleasure she sees in the man who is falling in love with her over and over again!