The Charles Dickens adventure story, "Little Dorrit," has been redone by a British cast and now being shown in segments on PBS.

It has a character who appears to have Alzheimer's, although the medical condition was not described that way at the time the old man keeps foregtting where he is and what's going on and his friends and daughter deal with this and he doesn't understand or acknowledge any problem.

I mention it as you seem to have an interest in this topic.

Dicken's is a great storyteller; it's a shame the title "Little Dorrit," doesn't do it justice these days - it might better be called: "Murder at Enron."

Um...I'm not an English student or teacher but I write a lot and read eno...

The Charles Dickens adventure story, "Little Dorrit," has been redone by a British cast and now being shown in segments on PBS.

It has a character who appears to have Alzheimer's, although the medical condition was not described that way at the time the old man keeps foregtting where he is and what's going on and his friends and daughter deal with this and he doesn't understand or acknowledge any problem.

I mention it as you seem to have an interest in this topic.

Dicken's is a great storyteller; it's a shame the title "Little Dorrit," doesn't do it justice these days - it might better be called: "Murder at Enron."

Um...I'm not an English student or teacher but I write a lot and read enough and when "the truth," or real human expereince leaps off the page (or out of the movie version), I'm touched and impressed.

It's unfortuante if 'schooling,' turned people off to some of the real life stories and great portrays of human emotions, struggles and achievements.

It's a great (touching and sad) portrayal of this condition. He's by far not the main character in this story of murder, wasted war, bank scams and cruel justice (injustice) but in some way that makes it all the more real: the world whirls around him; and like many a Dicken's tale the pace is quick.

The character is named: William Dorrit and he is described as "going senile."

Um...he is quite central to the plot, actually although the running around of his children entails most of the action, I think.

He starts out in debtor's prison. Dickens had a lot of harsh responses to debtors prisons and the extreme justice of the times (getting executed for stealing, etc.).

Sorry about your mother. "Senior moments," senility, or whatever we call it often creeps up on people as they age.

I hear many recommendations about 'keeping an active mind,' and I think there is truth to that (can't hurt) but personally I've come to think that a 'learning mind,' may even be better, learning new things, in...

The character is named: William Dorrit and he is described as "going senile."

Um...he is quite central to the plot, actually although the running around of his children entails most of the action, I think.

He starts out in debtor's prison. Dickens had a lot of harsh responses to debtors prisons and the extreme justice of the times (getting executed for stealing, etc.).

Sorry about your mother. "Senior moments," senility, or whatever we call it often creeps up on people as they age.

I hear many recommendations about 'keeping an active mind,' and I think there is truth to that (can't hurt) but personally I've come to think that a 'learning mind,' may even be better, learning new things, increasing skills.

In some way learning is building 'new roads,' (or whatever) in the brain, new connections. While just being active in the same old things may not be as good although I have no data about this.

Second childhood, in our sometimes Disneyland world, is sometimes presented as a carefree time of retirement or something.

But second childhood is a biblical reference to growing old and it had nothing to do with becoming care free but talking how older people become like babies again; they lose their hair, like babies have no hair. They lose their teeth, like babies have no teeth, etc.

It's harder in USA culture to deal with this, I suppose. Other cultures truly encompass a broader based family (uncles, aunts, cousins) and a multi-generational family (infants to great grandparents) and they don't focus on life as just all the cool things we can do between the ages of 17 and 34.

Um...don't take things too personal between yourself and your Mom. My Mom had no idea who I was when she was in her last days, became more rude, biased, not pleasant, etc.

Her peer group friends use to tell me to realize it was the illness, not her and sought to remind me of her younger days when she was noted for being happy and cheerful....didn't help much, but Time does heal all wounds.