Spontaneous

 I have a friend who has vascular dementia but he is handling it well and by doing mental and physical exercises he has slowed down its advance. He is open and friendly and sometimes can get caught up in the moment and lose himself.

We were at a football game the other day and our team won so everyone was in a great mood. Three of my friends including my friend who has vascular dementia had arrived together. We had all parked in the same parking garage. 

As we wandered back to the car, my friend and I were chatting and we were falling behind the other two who were in a hurry to leave before the crowd. All of a sudden  I am talking to myself, and my friend is off talking to someone in the next block The conversation lasted about 5 minutes. I stopped and waited for him. As he came back, I asked him, if the person he was talking to was someone he knew. He said no, he just wanted to tell the man that he liked the football sweater he was wearing. My friend then wandered back in history to when he had actually met the player named on the sweater worn by the stranger. 

My friend looked around and looked a bit confused, so I said the car is this way and our friends are waiting up the street. My friend smiled and we moved to catch up to the other two, who had realized we were not right behind them so they had stopped and waited. As we moved into the parking lot, my friend saw something someone was doing in their car and he stopped and went over and chatted with them for a few minutes. All of us waited and then when he was ready we took him to the car.

My friend is spontaneous and always has been so, but these days we need to keep an eye on him because once he has finished talking to a stranger, he can forget where he is and where he needs to go next. He gets to meet a lot of great people and always has a good time. Sometimes i wish I had the courage to be just as spontaneous as he is, It is a good trait.