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From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of love, loss, and redemption. I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

It is rare, very rare, for all timers to be viewed as a blessing. But Robert L'Hua says the

disease changed his family's life for the better. Here's his Modern Love piece, a memory magically

interrupted, read by the Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated actor, Michael Shannon.

Your grandmother has Alzheimer's, right? The doctor asked me, scrolling notes into a floppy

manila folder. I hadn't expected to discuss my grandmother's Alzheimer's with him. I was hoping

to hear some explanation as to why, apart from her memory, my grandmother's overall health seemed

so mysteriously improved. Her lupus, for instance, had all but disappeared from her blood work.

Yes, but I mean, well, there is a theory, he said, interrupting that people with Alzheimer's

heal themselves of their diseases because they forget they have them.

I glance across the room at my beautiful grandmother, smiling vaguely in her lipstick pink trench coat.

But she don't really believe that, I said. The doctor shrugged with an implicit, who knows?

Which I found irritating, because I hadn't flown all the way from Manhattan to Nashville to discuss

fanciful theories. I wanted solid answers about Joanne's health, and he'd thrown me with his

...