Sylvia Wynter's Dream

Dementia is a generic term for a group of symptoms relating to reduced cognitive abilities such as memory and concentration impairment, which are serious enough to affect daily life. “Amnesia’s Granddaughter” is a blog website where this caregiver tells true stories and emotionally charged experiences that expose the complexity in supporting somebody who has dementia.

My name is Tenae Brissett. I am a third year University student at the University of the West Indies, Mona. I enjoy surfing the internet, watching television/movies and reading. Growing up, neither my grandfather or grandaunt were the big parts of my life that they are now. Even though I loved them dearly, I used to only see them periodically. My grandaunt lived overseas so my mother and I would visit whenever we could while my grandfather was busy, still running his own business. It was not until dementia struck him in the year 2018 that I begun to truly know him. My mother and I had relocated back into his house to help take care of him and the rest was history. My grandaunt, on the other hand, had her whole life upended after she developed this disease. It was decided that the best place for her at that point was here in Jamaica.

This project is my way of using an engaging platform to express my experiences, personal feelings and thoughts that I have just now reflected on after the last five years of living my life like this. It is important that no one comes away from reading my works, believing I resented my grandfather or grandaunt. All this blog is meant to show is that it was stressful. I hope you enjoy my narrative essays and take from it, feelings of understanding and compassion for the underappreciated community of dementia caregivers and learn that though, dementia has its daunting impacts on one’s life, it also doesn’t always necessarily have to be the end.