GREER, S.C. — Local grandfather Lawrence Bookbinder’s family determined that his recent habit of expressing his thoughts and feelings must be the result of senility, glum sources reported.
“I knew it would happen someday, but I wasn’t ready for his mind to start going like this so soon,” said Kayla Bookbinder, Lawrence’s granddaughter. “He just hasn’t been acting like himself lately. The other day, out of nowhere, he started talking about his past? Like, talking about himself, sharing memories about growing up in his childhood home and playing in the yard with his siblings, stuff like that. I was ready to write it off as a one-time ‘senior moment,’ but he kept piping up, sharing information about himself and expressing his opinions. It was really disturbing, that’s just not the Grandpa I’ve come to know.”
Lawrence, however, is reluctant to accept his family’s suspicions of dementia.
“I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with me, I’ve just been speaking up a little more than usual. My wife and kids talk about themselves all the time, why shouldn’t I talk about myself? I’ve been sitting quietly through family dinners for 50 years, it’s my turn,” said Lawrence. “My conversation topics have traditionally been limited to what new chain restaurants are opening in the area and what Tom Clancy novel I’m reading, so it must have been alarming for them when I started talking about my relationship with my father. And now that I think about it, I did tell my grandkids I loved them… maybe I am starting to lose it?”
Jennifer Liu, a local geriatric doctor, says that she frequently encounters situations like that of the Bookbinder family.
“I see this all the time in my profession,” said Liu. “People bring in their elderly male relatives for cognitive tests as soon as they start expressing emotions, or talking about their feelings, or tipping at a coffee shop. Sometimes it’s dementia, sometimes they’re just finally ready to talk. Either way, you want to treat this behavior early or it will only get worse. Their extrovertedness might seem tolerable at first, but when it comes down to it, I don’t think most people really want to hear the thoughts and feelings of anyone born before 1970.”
At press time, the Bookbinders also suspected that their elderly grandmother was senile after she momentarily forgot where the Facebook app was located on her iPad.
