​Dwight Roth paints a haunting word picture that challenges us to think about who we are and how we show compassion in his poem, The Point of No Return, about a man with dementia wandering at Wal-Mart.

 

He was wandering across the checkout lanes
At the local Super Wal-Mart
With a look of concern on his face
As he looked across the carts
He was unaware of his condition.
His pants were soaked and soiled
His only concern was to find his wife… 
     And surely she would come through soon
As I watched him move from lane to lane
My heart went out to this man
Who seemed not to know the state he was in
But had only one plan
I asked him if I could be of help
He said he didn’t think so
She would be coming through very soon.
And he wandered on down the row
I went to find a manager
Who could help him find his wife
But when we returned he had vanished
He was nowhere in sight.

 
I still think about the old man 
     not much older than myself
And wonder if he found her
And what it must be like
Not to know who you are
I cried many tears as I recalled
The empty look, the lack of concern
Unaware of the condition he was in
And for the mind that had grown dim
I wonder if I too will reach
That point of no return
The place where my only concern will be
Just to find the one I love.

​Dwight Roth was brought up in a Mennonite preacher’s family in Masontown, Pennsylvania. During the past forty-five years, he has been a Mennonite church planter in Rocky Mount, NC, a pastor, schoolteacher, and Assembly of God elder. Presently he is retired and attends an independent church planting in Waxhaw, NC called Fellowship Church.​