Month: November 2019

I met a woman recently whose husband had suddenly refused to go into the bathroom. She couldn’t get him through the door no matter what she tried. She couldn’t understand it. It made no sense. It turned out that there was a mat inside the door and he thought that it was a hole in […]

One day I went to visit my friend Ruth. She was in the middle stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She lived alone in the house she had lived in for the past 40 years. Next door to her lived her brother and his wife. Each morning her sister in law would get her up and dressed […]

I have an idea for the next time someone asks you what they can do to help. Suggest to them that they send your loved one a greeting card in the mail. This can be helpful no matter what stage of the disease they are at. If someone is in the early stages of the […]

My mother would often ask me if I was sure about things. ” Are you sure this is my bed?” “Are you sure this is where I am to sleep?” ” Are we supposed to be here? Are you sure?” I would try to reassure her but it was hard to make it stick. One […]

Being a caregiver for someone with dementia can become all consuming. It takes over our lives. Even the most supportive spouse will start to feel resentful if everything you try to do together is dependent on the whims of your parent with dementia. They are entitled to wonder – When is there going to be […]