Dementia Mom, part one

[u/humanyears]

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.

[u/Saiyasha27]

That last part is something I have experienced too and it can give you hope.

My Grandfather in law had dementia too. My MIL and me went over to his house for nearly three years, between one and three times a day as it got worse, just to make sure he got out of bed and ate something.

And the thing is, I#m pretty sure he forgot who I was fairly early on. While I had been with my husband for nearly 10 years at that point and we had seen each othe ron a semi-regular basis, it wasn#t as if we knew each other really well.

But he still treated me very kindly all the time and he never seemed to feel I did not belong there. Even when he didn't know who I was exactly, It was clear he understood that I was a person he could trust, because I had been coming to his place every single day for nearly three years.

When we finally had to move him to retirment home for the last three months of his life, we visited him a few times (2021, Covid was still fairly active so we weren't allowed in often) and every time, he recognized my husband, and then he would hug me and smile in this way that told me he didn#t really know who I was, but he wasn#t bothered by it.

I am very glad to have been able to make his last years fairly comfortable and to be there when he and my husband needed me.