Once or twice each week, I drive to the southwest corner of our town. At one crossroads stands a building where my loved one resides that often reminds me of a prison.

No, there are no bars on the windows, but these panes hold unbreakable glass, and the doors of the place are always locked so that none of its residents can leave.

In order for me to visit my dear one, I have to ring the bell at the front door. Soon someone will come and let me in after having asked the reason for my visit. I have to fill out a paper and then I am admitted down a long corridor to a brightly lit dining room. The people I find there are not criminals although they each have received a life sentence. It is a sentence without a chance for parole and no reprieve will ever be given, and neither will there be any time off for good behavior or amnesty.

These people have been committed to this place and condemned to their sentence by an unseen hand from an unseen judge all due to a repulsive act of Mother Nature. This devastating illness robs these people of their dignity and quality of life. While in the past many possessed a brilliant mind, they no longer have any of that brilliancy left.

All because parts of that brain no longer function as it did before. Some parts have become disconnected, and many of these people now sit in their wheelchair often sound asleep or resting their head on a table, while others may be playing like children with pieces of Tinker Toys.

While there, I see one healthy-looking man reaching with his left hand toward the floor and making the moves to stroke his dog he sees in his foggy mind, but the dog is not present in reality. There is a gentleman who once worked as a mechanic. Here he lies on the floor of his room under his bed pretending that he is working on his car or on the automobile of a former customer in his automotive shop.

All these people received a life sentence for a crime they did not commit. We all know that life often is not fair, but does this show any fairness? Isn’t it true that they really don’t deserve this kind of lifestyle, but without them asking for it they did get that life sentence. The sad part is that the only way for them to be released from that life sentence and their present environment is by way of someone from a funeral home to gather their remains at the end of their sad life’s journey.

It is a sentence for life.

So you say you want to write?

Prove it.

Send us 500 or so words of scintillating copy. Make it funny. Make it poignant. Make it count. Make it any way you want.

Just don’t cuss. Don’t be boring. And have a point.

If we like it, we’ll run it.

Email submissions to community@rv-times.com. Put “Readers Who Write” in the subject line.