Memory gone, love remains
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — There’s no secret to love. There’s no requirement to receive it and no map of where to find it. Love just happens. Two Idaho seniors have proved that nothing can stand in the way of finding and keeping love once you have it.
Creekside Inn Memory Care in Coeur d’Alene shared a video with KXLY of two clients hugging after being reunited after six months apart. The sweet footage looks like two friends reconnecting, but it’s so much more.
WARNING: This video might make you tear up.
Rosemary and Don met at an independent living home three years ago, and both were in early stage dementia. The two quickly became best friends and even referred to each other as husband and wife. After three years at the home, their families moved them to different assisted living facilities which separated them. After six months apart, the two reunited earlier this month at Creekside Inn in Coeur d’Alene. (video via Creekside Inn)
Posted by KXLY 4 News on Thursday, January 11, 2018
In it, Don looks at Rosemary the way every woman wants to be looked at. But, it’s more than just an old friendship. It’s a connection that easily could have been forgotten.
Creekside Inn Memory Care Communication Relations Director Rebecca Georgius said she doesn’t know if they remembered one another’s names when they saw each other.
Rosemary, 81, and Don, 66, both have dementia.
According to Georgius, the two met at an independent living facility in Idaho three years ago. They became close, but their needs were different and their families moved them to two different facilities.
“Rosemary would come to the front desk [at Creekside Inn Memory Care] and ask where Don was and Don couldn’t really remember her name. He just called her his lady friend,” Georgius said.
They spent six months apart before their lives changed again on December 9, 2017.
“He was laying in his hospital bed and his family said he was weeping because he said nobody loved him. His lady friend didn’t love him anymore,” Georgius said. “Little did he know he would be here and seeing her that same day.”
Georgius was the one recording when the two reconnected at Creekside Inn and has known them since their friendship began.
“They remembered how they felt about each other and that, that moment that Don realized it was her, you see his face, everything changed,” Georgius said. “They were holding hands, dancing down the hallway after their reunion.”
Dementia took a lot from Don and Rosemary, but it can’t take away the warmth of her hand in his or the smiles on their faces while they walk down the hall together at Creekside Inn.
“We think with with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, that maybe part of them is gone, but that part that feels, that’s still there,” Georgius said.
Meet Rosemary and Don. The friendship and love they share is one fit for a novel. @ernievelaKXLY and I will share it tonight on � for #KXLY pic.twitter.com/7lFC1Zkutp
— Ariana Lake (@arianaKXLY) January 12, 2018
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