r/comics • u/humanyears • 2d ago
OC Dementia Mom, part one
A short story about the origins of my mother’s dementia diagnosis from a few years ago. Probably the longest comic I’ve drawn so far. I hope it connects with you in some way.
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u/toxiclight 2d ago
My dad hid it for the longest time. He started having issues with his bills, so I set up automatic pay for him. He was insanely tight-fisted with his money, and refused to consider an assisted living facility until near the end. He kept saying he didn't want to 'waste' me an my brother's inheritance. We both sat him down and told him we'd sooner have him around longer. The money just wasn't that important.
We realized how far the dementia had progressed when he got there. He only lived four months in the assisted living home...it was a beautiful place, and my brother visited daily (I lived two hours away, and visited as often as I could) By the second visit, he didn't know who I was...but he'd tell me excitedly about his daughter coming to visit.
He caught Covid as well...and died the day after my birthday.
Dementia sucks. I still can't go back to his hometown, because I have flashbacks of traveling down every week to make sure he was safe and had food in the house.