I found my husband’s glasses in the bread drawer

Dear Delyara, My husband has begun putting things in impossible places. Yesterday, the television remote was in the refrigerator. This morning, I found his glasses in the drawer where we keep bread. He accused me of moving them and became so angry that he knocked a cup from the counter. Five minutes later, he was frightened by the broken pieces and asked whether someone had entered the apartment. The doctor says it is early dementia. Early is a strange word for something that already feels late. We have been married fifty-one years. He knows every scar on my body, every story from my childhood, and exactly how long to boil my coffee. Now he sometimes asks when his wife is coming home while I am standing beside him. I tell him she will be back soon because correcting him only makes him panic. Today, after I found the glasses, he put them on and looked directly at me. For one clear second, his face softened and he said my name the way he used to say it across crowded rooms. Then he asked whether I was the new housekeeper. I made breakfast anyway. He ate the heel of the bread because that has always been his favorite. I watched him chew and wondered how love is supposed to behave when recognition begins leaving before the body does.