The remember

I feel that Annie was talking about her love Ben after his illness how some memories consume her, like his appearance how it change over the time from being her lover to this weird looking person as she describes as ape or sea turtle. The sentence that stood out for me was " last time I saw him as human" Annie the character through this story  looking at Ben's changes and compare him to animals that resemble his appearance the process of him dying. It seems like she was trying to detach herself from her feelings for him by describing him as an animal but, in that sentence she see him as whi he is and what he is going through with cancer (=that's what I think the story is about)