“I want to be like a human again”

The article undertakes an integrated, holistic and multidisciplinary study of the language produced over an extended period by an ageing South African woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It does so against the background of the medical and legal records of the dementing person’s condition revealing certain possibilities, in treatment and care, of moving beyond pathological deficit perspective and exploring the implications of retained ability. The study is strengthened by comparison of current patterns of written and oral language use with those in letters from the same person early in her professional life, and in a highly regarded scientific book she produced at the height of her carer.