Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!
PHOTO PROMPT © ALICIA JAMTAAS
Home
“Hello, Dad.”
Who’s speaking? Who’s this man so tall and strong, crowding my room? I don’t like him.
“Dad, it’s Colin.”
I stare at him.
“My son was called Colin. Do you know him?” Somehow the words come out jumbled.
Why am I here? Am I in prison? I want to be home. I want to be home in my cabin, nothing but trees for miles.
I knew the forest. I knew the trees, from sapling to maturity. In summer the dry ground was springy; in winter, the mud clamped my boots.
“Dad!”
Who’s speaking? I don’t like him.
Autumn Leaves 
He remembers his cabin. At least, that.
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Thank you for your compassionate comment, Neil. That he remembers his cabin is some consolation.
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Penny,
You convey so sensitively the memory loss, confusion and disorientation that dementia forces on its victims, heartbreakingly, both for the sufferer and those who love them. He wants this safe place, this home, because it’s still known.
pax,
dora
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Dear Dora
Thank you for such a thoughtful and compassionate comment. As you say, he wants his old cabin because it is familiar. We need our memories, don’t we?
Pax
Penny
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it looks like dementia had settled in. must be tough for father and son.
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Thank you for commenting, Plaridel. Yes, tough for all the family, I’m afraid.
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Dear Penny,
A very sensitively written POV. Poor Colin.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for commenting so kindly. To realise your memories and personality are going must be bad. To see it happening to someone you love must be ghastly. As you say, poor Colin.
Shalom
Penny
xx
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This reminded me that dementia is a scourge of the worst kind,
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Michael. Dementia is horrible.
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My heart goes out to him. To the naturalist, the flora and fauna are their family. My heart also goes out to the family as they watch the parent they care about fade away 😦
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Jade. Colin’s father missed the forest which had been the backdrop to everything significant in his life. It would have been the last memory to fade.
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You’re very welcome, Penny.
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This is painful to read, which shows how well written it is. It’s bad enough to suffer from dementia and feel life as we knew it drift away, but to be torn out of the known environment is horrible. Unavoidable in many cases, but still brutal. You’re on a roll this week, Penny.
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Thank you for such a compassionate comment, Gabi. I hate the thought that I may one day be “put in a home.”
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Beautiful rendering of confusion, longing, memories lost, and memories kept. Painful on both sides – the father’s and the son’s. Well done.
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Thank you for your insightful comment, Lish, and for the inspiring prompt photo. I’m glad that the mutual pain and confusion of father and son came across clearly.
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Perfectly written, Penny. Poor dad and Colin. There are no winners here. This disease is awful.
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Thank you for your empathic comment, Dale. As you say there are no winners. I hope research into treatment progresses.
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I watched my mother-in-law go through it. My great-grandmother also (though I barely remember her NOT afflicted). I sure hope so too.
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Thankful for good memories, but so full of sorrow for Colin, who Dad has forgotten.
Too true for many.
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Thank you for commenting so compassionately, Oneta. It must be so difficult seeing the memories go.
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What a heart wrenching story. I’m happy that at least he still has memories of the cabin. I feel for both him and his son. It’s truly hard to see your parent who has taken care of you all those years fade slowly like that.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment. As long as he remembers his cabin and the feel of the forest he will have something to hold on to.
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I feel sadness for Colin. It is difficult when an elderly loved one forgets. Remembering the cabin could possibly help the dad ground himself in reality and it’s possible he will have moments of remembering his son. Beautifully written, Penny!
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Thank you for such a compassionate reply, Brenda. As you say, his memories of the cabin will give Colin’s dad something to hold on to.
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