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I contend that the authors\u2019 accounts of their mothers\u2019 struggle with dementia, from its onset to its end, function as living archives of personal and national history. I employ life writing, aging studies, and, to a lesser extent, historiography to examine the literary, social-cultural, and historical dimensions of such experiences. I address the narrative construction of the mothers\u2019 identity in later life by highlighting the role of archives and family memories in the context of contemporary South Africa. Thus, I aim to illustrate the instrumental role of life narratives in the creation of safe spaces for intergenerational dialogue and reconciliation with a troubled past on a personal and national level. I also contend that humanities-based inquiry brings to the fore the essential aspects of later life, thereby challenging the pathologizing medical in the representation of dementia, which often disregards the reality of old people as vessels of knowledge. Eventually, I showcase that illness life narratives function as accessible repositories of public knowledge that render visible the realities of aging.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/geront\/gnag221","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T11:52:34Z","timestamp":1789127554000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Living history, fading minds: dementia as the gateway to historical past in South Africa via Antjie Krog\u2019s\n                    <i>Blood\u2019s Inner Rhyme<\/i>\n                    (2025) and Julia Martin\u2019s\n                    <i>The Blackridge House<\/i>\n                    (2019)"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"66","author":[{"given":"Oscar","family":"Ortega Montero","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), Wits University , Johannesburg,","place":["South Africa"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026101921571384100_gnag221-B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.20529\/IJME.2021.059","article-title":"Dementia: Trauma and loss of personhood vs family as recuperative space","volume":"7","author":"Agarwal","year":"2022","journal-title":"Indian Journal of Medical Ethics"},{"key":"2026101921571384100_gnag221-B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"502","DOI":"10.1093\/geronb\/gbv051","article-title":"Wisdom at the end of life: An analysis of mediating and moderating relations between wisdom and subjective well-being","volume":"71","author":"Ardelt","year":"2016","journal-title":"The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences"},{"key":"2026101921571384100_gnag221-B3","first-page":"1","volume-title":"The vulnerable observer: Anthropology that breaks your heart","author":"Behar","year":"1996"},{"key":"2026101921571384100_gnag221-B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"70","DOI":"10.1017\/S0144686X10000693","article-title":"The living dead? 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