It's the endless chocolate. Or bacon when you want it.

Or carrying around a doll if you like.

This year-end piece in the Times is about Beatitudes, a facility for Alzheimer's patients.

What a concept: work with them and don't leave them lying around nearly comatose and over-medicated.

Granted, as yet, there's no magic bullet to Alzheimer's.

But this philosophy of treating the person as a person--finding what makes him or her calm and able to cope--is a giant step.

"Blessed are those who mourn; they will be comforted."