That Look

There is a look which is distinctive to dementia.  The individual has an emptiness to their eyes.  The body is there.  The eyes see.  The brain is not engaged or responsive.  This is not the same look you see when someone is in a quiet or meditative state.  It is not the look of someone who is resting due to illness.  This is an absence.  This is a lack of processing or connection.

This is the look the man had in the airport three years ago when I found him wandering and asked an airport employee to help him.

This is the look the woman sitting across from Mom and Lyn during Sunday's lunch had even though she opened the menu and appeared to look at it.  Her son suggested a meal and she only nodded in response, never speaking through their meal.

This is the look of an advanced stage of the dementia causing disease.

This is the look on Lyn's face with increasing frequency.