Waving at Strangers

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:00:00

WAVING AT STRANGERS

Today's show breaks with form. Instead of delving into a subject that's making headlines, we're just telling a good story. Why? Because on occasion, it's good to know that in the middle of the chaos the news tries to make sense of, we can find an oasis of meaning for ourselves.

Angie Anderson

Most of us have a story that we rely on to anchor ourselves. Angie Anderson, from Apex, North Carolina, contacted us with her story, about a stranger she sees regularly on her commute to work.

Every morning, without fail, a little man stands beside the road in front of a ramshackle building and waves. It's a small, low wave and he waves at every car that passes.
- Angie Anderson

Angie talks to Dick about how she eventually waved back at the man, and how she finds his smile so heartening. Eventually, she met the man and has found her world has opened up since that first wave back.

Hear Dick's follow-up interview with the man who waves

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Maggie and Madje

Like many Americans of a certain, middle age, Maggie Steber has to provide care for her aging mother.

Complicating the matter is Maggie's profession: she's an award-winning photojournalist who's often traveling abroad. Another complication is that Maggie has always had a troubled relationship with her mother, Madje. And their relationship only got harder once her mother developed dementia. But after her mother's mental health started to decline, something surprising happened:

Dementia has given me the mother I always wanted. And it sounds cold to say it. But what it did was allow me to grow closer to her again during the later years of her life.
- Maggie Steber

Maggie now photographs her mother as a way to help cope with the inevitable. Taking photos of Madje has allowed Maggie to see her mother as a person, not solely as the parent who raised her, and at times, aggravated her. One of Maggie's favorite moments with her mother: driving around Miami with the radio going full blast, and both of them singing, "I love you, a bushel and a peck…"

See a gallery of Maggie's photographs of her mother
Find out more about Alzheimer's here and here
Find assisted living facilities that specialize in helping people with dementia
Browse free supports including medical prescriptions, long-term care ombudsman, legal help, and Medicare
Find out what happens to a brain with dementia and Alzheimer's

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The Story from American Public Media - Waving at Strangers

Waving at Strangers

WAVING AT STRANGERS

Maggie and Madje