Have you ever put yourself in the shoes of an older adult? A person who has spent their entire life working or being a housewife, or traveling the world, or taking care of others. A person who has lived a long life.

Have you ever thought about what the passage of time is like? How our skin wrinkles, our vision fades, our hair changes color, and our strength diminishes.

Have you ever tried to remember something, but just couldn’t find that memory?

Have you ever thought about what it feels like to reach old age?

As we grow up, times change as well, and each day is different from the previous. Imagine having lived long enough to see how the world has changed and that what you saw 50 years ago is not the same as what you see now.

An older person has gone through many changes, not only social, but also physical, and we as their family members have not seen them. We saw an adult, a father, a grandfather. But they saw us as babies, children, adults. The big emotional process that older adults go through, we must also consider.

Not giving enough importance or enough weight to their words just because they are “older” and “they’ll forget later” is not a way of expressing love to them. On the contrary, no matter how old our lovely older one is, whether or not he has Alzheimer’s, we must always consider what they are saying, pay attention to them, listen to them. A sign of love is also understanding that they are going through a process of detachment, where being the eldest in the family, they went from caring to being cared for. Even when the signs of Alzheimer’s there, we must understand that it can be a very difficult process for them to begin losing their memories.

At some point, all older adults begin to tell stories that may not be as true to how they really happened, but if we really want to take care of them and show them how much we love them, listening to them talk about it and being interested in the story is a good gesture.

Love is not just giving them their medicines. Love is also respecting them as individuals and thinking beings. It doesn’t matter if they ‘later forget’, having Alzheimer’s is not a reason not to take them into consideration regarding the comments they may make or the opinions they want to give.

It doesn’t cost us anything to show them a little interest in what they are saying, even if it is a story that did not really happen, because what they want is to feel heard, to feel important, to feel that they are not being a burden for their family.

Let us be empathetic with our older adults. Let us give them the attention and importance they deserve, because love is also shown when we are listening to them and showing that they are valid.