Madeeha Relationship

When I was reading “Tangles: Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me”, I was able to connect my experiences to some of the memories shared by Leavitt. I could relate myself to some of the things that Leavitt mentions in the ‘Hair’ section of the novel. She said that her family had curly hair and this feature made them stand out from the crowd. I do not know whether my family stands out from my relatives because of curly hair or not, but, I am always identified as the young lady who has short big curly hair. My family and friends only notice my curly hair instead of the colour of my shirt, my pants, or my eyes for example. The drawings of the loose curly strands of hair resemble my loose hair after a shower.

Another part of the novel that I could relate to was when Leavitt was practising writing with her left hand to strengthen her brain. I am left-handed unlike Leavitt but, I practice writing and doing the daily chores with my right hand to strengthen my brain. Surprisingly, I am able to do things such as drinking water or making a henna design with my right hand. However, my right-hand writing looks quite similar to Leavitt’s left-hand writing.

Apart from this, I related Leavitt’s mother’s painful time dealing with Alzheimer’s disease with my grandmother. It was difficult to read the last few pages because I dealt with a similar situation in the past. The phone call reminded me of the time when my family received a call from my uncle saying she is gone. My mother went into so much grief and sadness because she had not met her mother for several years. She only spoke to my grandmother over the phone since we immigrated to Canada. I remember my uncle used to call once every day to let my mother talk to my grandmother. He informed us that she was having symptoms of perhaps Alzheimer’s and she had been doing strange things lately. In her last days, my uncle told me that she was refusing to recognize any of us including my mother. He called us every day because my grandmother would smile and talk when she heard my mother’s voice otherwise, she would just sit quietly. She forgot by that time that my mother was her youngest and the most pampered daughter from the rest of her children.

My grandmother did strange things like Leavitt’s mother. For example, if she had to pray, then she would constantly pray for hours and hours until my aunt told her that she needed to stop because she was done praying. I felt sad when I heard these stories about my grandmother from my uncle. Thus, I could relate to Leavitt’s feelings and experiences since I knew how painful it is to see a loved one suffer from a disease like Alzheimer’s.