Pleasure of thinking
When Mary, Cathy and Dan come to Alice in order to hold the first meeting of people with early-onset Alzheimer’s, she asks them whether they want “something to think”. Due to her quickly progressing disease, Alice confuses words all the time. In this case, she confuses verbs “to think” and “to drink”. Feeling rather embarrassed, she is afraid that her new acquaintances may mock at her. Instead of it, they start joking that they actually would like to have “a cup of thinks”. The irony is that with Alzheimer’s every minute of clear thinking is a treasure. Alice’s mistake reflects their biggest wish.
Alienation
As soon as Alice announces that she has Alzheimer’s disease, she starts noticing how her former colleagues run away from her as if she has a plague. Of course, they are “politely kind to her”, but that is all. To face her means to face “her mental frailty” and understand “that, in the blink of an eye, it could happen to them”. She feels aliened. When she visits a hospital in order to have a look at a life of people with Alzheimer’s disease there, she bitterly realizes that they are “her new colleagues”. The irony is that these people are really her colleagues, for they share the same burden, they don’t run away from her, they are not afraid to face her.
Needy
John is rather irritated with Alice’s wish to discuss their problems, preventing him from working. He accused her of needing to “talk now”, “to be home” and just being “awfully needy all of a sudden”. Then he left her and went for work. The irony is that one could hardly call her needy when that conversation took place. Soon enough, he learns what a word needy really means.
