Researching Dementia To Write Lion’s Face Libretto

“[A]n elderly man and an elderly woman, neither of whom use language any more, gaze at each other, shaking their simple instruments in time. My first thought is a cliche: music drawing strangers together in the depths. Then the doctor sitting next to me gives me a nudge, and shows me what he has scribbled on the margin of his notes: ‘husband & wife’.”