I read your article and I immediately called the nursing supervisor at his facility. She is most anxious to read your article, and I have offered to help in preparing and presenting a similar program at his facility. Your article touched me because it captures the sadness, the humor, the limitations -- the essence of an Alzheimer's sufferer. I applaud those people who understand that anything one might do with or for an Alzheimer's victim is but for the moment, yet say: "Let's do it anyhow." My husband can still smile and laugh and appreciate good things, even if it is just for the moment. He once told me what it was like for him to have this disease when I asked him something about yesterday, and he sadly replied: "I don't have a yesterday."
That is why I always try to make today, this very moment, count. In reality, that is all any of us actually have.
Judy Seidner
via Internet
The long goodbye:What a great story. My father, Leonard Monti Sr., passed away in 1997 from complications due to Alzheimer's disease. During the course of his illness, I gained much insight into this illness and the families who deal with it. My father was fortunate that he was able to remain at home with his wife until he passed away, but, believe me, when Nancy Reagan called this disease "the long goodbye," she was right on the money. I agree that this poetry may be similar to music therapy, but it is so touching to see happiness in an Alzheimer's patient for any reason. I applaud your taking the time to provide the population with any information to make this last journey in a patient's life easier. Thank you for writing such a kind and caring story.
Toni Monti
via Internet
Revved Up
Road to respect:I was happy to read your article "Rod Fellows" (Brian Smith, June 22). There was a period of time when the American automobile was appreciated by the family. Sunday drives were the highlight of the weekend, and washin' up the ol' car on Saturday was something people looked forward to. Nowadays, it's "Lease it, let Danny's wash it and Jiffy lube it." It's okay -- that new jellybean car will be a beer can next week. We can smash it while we're sitting on our whitewalls. Give 'em hell, Howard Greenfield.
Name withheld by request
Speed kills:Your recent account of a high-speed trip down the interstate in what can best be described as a jalopy will have set the hobby back decades if one of the car-crushing legislators reads it.
Glorifying law-breakers in public is utterly stupid. Your reporter, although his writing style is rather good, is an utter moron for placing his life, and the lives of innocent motorists, at risk just to get a story.
Rat Rods, the counterculture this alien moron belongs to, represents the negative image the majority of hot-rodders have tried to distance themselves from for the past 30-plus years.
There is a common ground between the gold-chain street-rodders with their fancy enclosed car haulers and these Rat Rodder idiots. It's where the majority of the hot-rodders reside.
Perhaps you should do a bit more investigating before you condone triple-digit interstate travel.
Skip Readio
Ayer, Massachusetts
Lost in Translation
Ill and arrogant:I was glad to read that the hospitals are providing translators for non-English-speakers ("Critical Connection", Amanda Sciosia, June 29). I can appreciate the fear a person may have with a serious illness/injury and not be able to communicate with the caregivers. I'm deeply disturbed, though, with the fact that so many Central/South American immigrants come here and make no effort to learn English. This seems to be more prevalent with the Spanish-speaking people than any others, and I don't know why. However, I do believe that for anyone to migrate to another country and make no effort to speak the language is nothing more than arrogant. The fact that so many of the Central/South Americans come here illegally makes it even more arrogant.
Bud Blake
Phoenix
