A crossword a day...

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to my old hometown of Virginia Beach to be in the wedding of a dear friend. This is relevant information only because it was one of the least healthiest weekends I can remember in a long time. I mean, weddings are historically not the healthiest events to begin with: brides and bridesmaids starve themselves in the weeks leading up to the wedding just to gorge themselves on a feast of appetizers, prime rib, booze and, of course, cake. Add to that the fact that I hadn't been to VB in over a year and thus was using the wedding weekend as the platform for a mass reunion of high school friends and you've got the setup for three days of absolute bliss in the form of Mexican food and homemade gluten free cake. So, avoid sounding like an utter hypocrite, I'm not going to talk about eating healthy on vacation.

Flashback to my flight back from Virginia, where I was fortunate to sit by a woman and her daughter, a UNF Advertising student. As I tried to get some shut-eye on the packed plane, I couldn't help but overhear the pair reading crossword clues to each other as they attempted to complete what I soon learned was the "Easy" crossword in the in-flight magazine. I'm not great at crosswords, but I do consider myself to be better than average, and found myself half-way done with the puzzle in my head before these two figured out a 4-letter-word for "Shredded" that started with "T". Noticing I was awake and having seen me attempt the New York Times Sunday puzzle before dozing off, they asked for my help and together we finished the puzzle just as the plane touched the ground.

The experience got me thinking about my own mother, and then her mother, my grandmother, who has dementia. Neither of them have ever done a crossword, to my knowledge. But studies like this one have found that people who regularly engage in mentally challenging activities, like crossword puzzles, have a decreased risk for dementia later in life. Having seen my grandmother's decline in recent years, I believe mental health to be equally as important as physical health, and if a crossword a day keeps dementia at bay, then I'm happy I've become hooked early. I hope that that mother and daughter on the plane make a habit of doing crosswords together now that they've had the satisfaction of completing one. And I hope even more that one of these days I can convince my own mother to try one out; if not for her sake, then for the sake of her concerned daughter.