Who is that Person?

In picture four Gertrude is struggling to remember her life. She suffers from Alzheimer’s. Gertrude moved into an assisted living apartment immediately after being diagnosed with the disease at 73 years old. Only three years earlier she mourned the loss of Walter, her husband of fifty years. Their four children still visit Gertrude on a regular basis, but disappointment is all they find. Even with the best doctors, Gertrude’s treatment has produced little to no results.
Born in 1921, Gertrude lived on her parent’s southern cotton plantation. Relatively speaking, their family was incredibly wealthy which explains why she did not need to work as a teenager. Her parents arranged for Gertrude to marry a man from an equally wealthy family, Walter. Originally, she did not want to marry her childhood friend, but in the best interest of her family’s social status she went along for the ride. After one year of marriage, at the age of 21, Gertrude realized she was going to spend her life with her soul mate.
After being married for five years, Gertrude had four children to keep up with. Walter was a business man; this allowed Gertrude to stay at home and raise her children. The family picked up and moved to Oregon so that Walter could pursue a better job. When all four kids were enrolled in school full time, Gertrude started to work. She had a real passion to help others which is why she chose to work in an institution for the mentally retarded. There, she had an opportunity to work with people of all ages. The work was extremely rewarding for Gertrude because she got along with people so well. The patients really enjoyed her presence because of her humor and wit. Gertrude always found it so sad that the staff at the institution was family to the patients because their own kin could not take care of them. Parents would visit every so often, but would find it to difficult to hold a conversation with their child. Older patients often had no visitors, so during visiting hours Gertrude would spend extra time with them to make sure their every day was special. As her own children started to get married and have children of their own, she decided to stop working at the institution so she could spend time with her grandchildren.
Currently, at the age of 88, Gertrude spends a lot of her time frustrated. She is a great grandmother, grandmother, and mother, but cannot remember it. She knows that she really enjoyed life before she lived in her apartment, but now she cannot seem to find the point. Comfort is her ultimate goal, so she wears her robe almost constantly. Her slim glasses allow Gertrude to see the pictures from her life before Alzheimer’s. Viewing photos and reading about her achievements are integral parts of her treatment. On her face she wears a permanent frown and wrinkles in her forehead demonstrating that she is in constant distress searching her mind for a life she wishes she knew.