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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Grandmother with dementia still knew the monk

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Finding the Truth | Ajahn Brahm | 31 March 2023

1 min read

Content note: death; illness

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

many years ago now eight nine years ago when she finally passed away she had dementia for such a long time and once she passed away it was a kind of I felt kind of relieved and happy for her. If you ever seen people with like dementia that they can't sometimes they don't remember who you are. I always thought that I don't know there wasn't that many. In fact, I was the only one who went into the the the old people's dementia ward or Alzheimer's ward know with a bald head and a brown robe. I thought at least she can remember me cuz I was different than everybody else. But no, she didn't even remember me at all. But I do recall when my uh my grandmother had dementia too. I remember when I went to go and see her in a sort of a ward in UK just outside of London. When I went in to see her, I went in with her with my brother. My brother lives in London. And so he was looking after her, going to visit her every week. And I'd only go once every three or four years whenever I could get into England because I was in a busy year. I remember just going to see my grandmother and as soon as she saw me, she recognized me straight away

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 5:58 (to 7:21)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

His brother visited their grandmother every week, yet she greeted Ajahn Brahm, visiting rarely from Australia, at once, and asked his brother who he was. Unfair, but funny. When his own mother died after Alzheimer's, he felt she'd been released from a prison. Love runs deeper than memory. Keep visiting anyway.

In brief (our summary)

Near the end, grandmother has long dementia; in a UK ward she recognises Brahm at once while barely recognising his brother.

Teaching point

Love can outlast the names dementia steals.

When this story may help

  • visiting grandparents
  • dementia care

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Finding the Truth | Ajahn Brahm | 31 March 2023 · 2023-03-31 · ▶ watch from 5:58 to 7:21 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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