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Cheryle St. Onge

“My mother played with the shape and the beauty of a sunflower pulled from the garden,” St. Onge writes. Scientists say it’ll be years before they know if viral infections contribute to the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. But better understanding of the injury COVID-19 does to the brain could open the door to developing better treatments for both long COVID and dementia.

Long COVID sufferers describe some cognitive symptoms that neurologists say are very similar to Alzheimer’s disease, such as becoming disoriented, losing things, and even undergoing personality changes. “My mother would never have licked her plate,” St. Onge writes, but with inhibition gone she indulged fully in a dessert she greatly enjoyed.

“My mother was not fond of horses when she was younger, but she did her best to overcome her fears when I became in love with all things horse at the tender age of four,” St. Onge reveals. “This is a quiet moment between two souls—they seemed to only be aware of each other for a few intimate moments.”

“Late spring, 2019, my mother with our Jack Russell, Skipper,” writes St. Onge. “Both of them were old and yet their behavior seemed to recall their youth, the magic of water, and a big open yard to play.”

“My mother came with me to nearly every event,” St. Onge writes. “She would happily hop in the car to run errands with us and sit and do puzzles.”

“My mother was a fabulous knitter, and she taught me when I was a young girl,” writes St. Onge. “She loved the productive nature of knitting, and by utilizing round needles she was able to knit around and around without fear of become confused with rows of purl. She made countless pairs of oversized wool mittens, and we treasure them.”

Alzheimer’s occurs as neurons in the part of the brain responsible for encoding short-term memories gradually die off, causing patients to experience worsening memory loss. “My mother had the muscle memory,” St. Onge writes, “but not the recollection of the countless times in her life she would have embraced the lovely childlike act of holding a wand, blowing her breath out, and [watching the bubbles escape].”

Cheryle St. Onge made loving photographs of her mother, Francis, as her life was shaped by dementia and the loss of her emotions and memory, until her death in 2020. Researchers are now exploring similarities between the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and some of the cognitive symptoms and brain changes caused by COVID-19 in an attempt to understand whether viral infections might be a cause of dementia.