Thanks for the story, Hagbard. I help a friend care for his 91 year old mother who has been slowly losing her memory over the past few years. There are no words to describe how sad the process is to witness, let alone experience.

RIP, Mr. O'Connor.

You're right about it being messy, HC. In fact it's dangerous for them....and others.

Three weeks ago, she forgot her little dog was outside with her when it took off and was hit and killed by a car...driver never stopped.

I've gone over and discovered she hadn't taken her meds from two days prior...the last time I was there.

I've gone over and found appliances running for no reason.

I keep telling the kids she should not be living alone.

It's scarey...and sad.

Oh gosh, Lisa, I know exactly what you are talking about. My friend's mom is much the same. I call her all the time, leave reminder notes for her, but she forgets what I said a minute after I've called and doesn't read the notes. When we go out to lunch, a minute after the waitress walks away, she forgets what she ordered. She knows she has a problem with her memory but doesn't realize how bad it is. She feels like people are always correcting and ciriticizing her. She often says, with tears in her eyes, I don't do anything right anymore. She doesn't live alone but she is sometimes alone for hours during the day. I know she won't want to go into a nursing home--her husband was in one for several years before he died--but she is going to have to have home healthcare aid or some kind of eldersitter stay with her so she isn't by herself. She was always an independent lady so she is going to hate that too, but what else to do?

Incidentally, when my mental faculties decline, I'm going to continue running the Retort. You can expect a lot of stories in which I confuse One Life to Live with reality.

Dammit, RCade. I wanted to flag your post as funny, but I was laughing so hard that my fingers were shaking and I clicked newsworthy instead.

My 85-year-old Irish Catholic grandmother has lost some of her mental faculties in the last two years. We flew her in with my mother to Florida, and on the drive home from the airport started talking about going to an Irish pub. She said something about a bar fight when she was young, so I told her "Nana, if we go to a pub you're going to get me into trouble."

Her response: "If there's trouble [long pause] I want a piece of it."

Another great story. BTW, I called my Irish grandmother "Nana" too. She lived to be 99 and died in her sleep. In the end though, she thought her children were out to get her, which broke my father's heart.

On a more cheerful note, my other grandmother is 98 and lives in an independent living center. She is in a wheelchair, but her memory is still intact as well as her sense of humor. She loves wearing her Steeler pin every Sunday and watching the game on a 50 inch screen. She says she team nearly gives her a heart attack each week and enjoys "hollering" at the TV. Give 'em hell, Grams!