the sad truth...

...about my Auntie in Valdosta. I am pretty sure she is already on the slippery slope, and headed downhill as fast as her little sled will go on an icy surface. There is a family history of dementia, and she is a prime suspect. I got a call last week, with her sounding even more confounded than usual, which is Very.

She was asking me about her  mother, and wondering why she could not recall any of the particulars about her funeral. My response was that the details were fuzzy for me also, due to thinking that she died in 1995. My Auntie insisted it was much more recent, as in 'just the other day'. She said she had been in the bed sleeping more than usual for several days and wondering where the event took place, and how many people were there. I told her what I could remember, but now that I've had time to consider, I think the information I relayed was about my grandfather, rather than grandmother.

I've seen this decline coming along for some time, and have been telling cousins that I believe there will be an 'event', a plainly witnessed occurrence that will prove to us all (Auntie included) it is time to make some changes, for someone to step in provide assistance. I've been hoping for years that it will not involve bodily harm, her getting hurt, or driving and injuring someone else. But as a fiercely independent, 110% self-sufficient adult for over sixty years, it is unlikely she will take kindly to suggestions, advice or guidance from any of us.

Leading me up to reporting I am going to the Alzheimer's Association office this afternoon for a meeting/workshop that provides more info. for family members who see the freight train barrelling down the tracks.The workshop will cover The Ten Warning Signs, and I am, quite honestly, prepared to go in with my pen and check most of them off in ref. to my Auntie. In recent phone conversations she has been so repetitive I will occasionally screen/ fail to answer her calls, and let it go directly to voice mail until I can gather up the gumption and assemble enough patience to call her back.

I will give a report when I get home with the list of 'signs'...for you to examine yourself in the mirror. Or ask a close friend for an honest appraisal, though if any of those signs apply, you likely do not want an Honest Appraisal.