Pretty much every day, I cycle past a neighbour who I assume suffers from some form of dementia and also has great difficulty articulating.

[elenlefoll@fediscience.org]

Pretty much every day, I cycle past a neighbour who I assume suffers from some form of dementia and also has great difficulty articulating. She is almost always outside at her doorstep, in slippers or barefoot, regardless of the weather. I always greet her and sometimes she signals that she wants to speak to me and so I stop over for a quick chat. Today she was trying to tell me something about bins, but I didn't understand what exactly. It sounded like she might need help retrieving something from her bin so I got off my bike and asked her to show me. It turns out that her direct neighbour had filled their paper/cardboard recycling bin with books and that she wanted to know if she could take one, but the neighbour was not there. She pointed to one particular book and read the title: "The rights of people with disabilities [my translation]" and proceeded to ask me if she was disabled. I found the question quite troubling and wasn't sure what to say so I told her that I didn't know what her disability status was, but that, if she was interested, I thought it was fine for her to take the book. I genuinely hope it's a good read.