Lying in her hospital bed my wife's eyes fluttered wide as can be looking around and clearly confused. "Honey, it's okay I'm here, everything's okay", I comforted. I knew the words that were coming next, they always did. "Who are you?", there was a bit of a slur in her voice from a recent stroke. Despite knowing what was coming I still felt the weight of the world collapse inside my chest and I was crumbling beneath the weight. I can't stand the thought of my wife of 53 years not even be able to recognize my face. "I'm your husband, Charles. Do you remember me?", I spoke with a tremble in my voice. "Husband? I don't have a husband", you could hear the fear in hers. Maybe this was pointless because this conversation never goes any differently and it never accomplishes anything, but I hope. I pray that she wakes up and looks at me in the eyes they she used to. I would then continue to read her stories about our past together, this would eventually spark her memory and for those few moments we could be together again, being truly us. I would tell her of when I first asked her to our highschool prom. I had her mom help me by getting her out of the house when she wasn't home so I could lay a trail of rose petals into her bedroom then to find me on her bed with a rose in my mouth and a sign saying "Prom?". Naturally she got home early while I was in the washroom and walked into her room only to find me running up behind her telling her she wasn't supposed to be here yet while doing up my zipper. She giggled with a huge smile on her face and opened the door before putting her arms around my neck, kissing me and saying yes. I would tell her about our wedding she had dreamed of at sunset on a beach in the Caribbean. Our two kids Mathew and Sarah, their families and our grandchildren. Then after I told her about our life together and our families she looked up and me and said "I'm sorry. But I don't remember". I couldn't breathe. Alzheimers had been difficult enough but I had never had her unable to remember me at all. "You don't have to", I replied but I couldn't hold back a few tears from trickling down my face. "Just try to get some rest and I'll be here for you". We sat in silence for some time before she fell asleep. Alone with her all I could her is the beeping sound of her heart monitor from her life support when the thought entered my mind. She had been in a lot of pain for a long time and I was exhausted. I had been caring for her for years, constantly in this hospital bed. I decided to reach down and I pulled the plug. She was still weak from her stroke so it didn't take long for her body to give up. I spent some time crying by her bed before plugging her back in, too late to come back and leaving. As I walked out of the building I told myself what I needed to hear. That was not my wife, it was somebody else now. My wife is already gone. It wasn't her.