My mom has dementia. If it weren’t for the trained caregivers I don’t know how we would deal. The one upside is that she is taking her lack of memory pretty well. Even when it first started she did not get angry about not being able to remember something.
I once asked a guy with Alzheimer’s, (in one of his clear moments) the following question: JR, when you are trying to remember something, and you can’t, does it make you REAL MAD??
Then J.R. responded: No, it does not make me mad; I know how old people are!
One of my aides in TX was also her mother’s caregiver (she lived in the same complex) and while I had the gal for two hours a day (here, it’s only two hours every two weeks). She used to come to me and cry because her mother’s condition was deteriorating almost daily.
The woman had 10 kids and only my aide (the youngest) would care for her. No one else wanted the job.
The mom got to where she knew me if I saw her every day, but let a day or two go between and I had to be introduced again. I would hug her and tell her I was glad to meet her.
I tried to help the daughter understand that the mom had to be treated like another child, and just knowing that she could talk to me made the job easier for her. I miss that gal. She was so good to me and her mom.