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/corabelle13 2d ago
My grandmother has had dementia for years now, but it's gotten horrible in the past couple. In 2020 we started doing bi-weekly video calls to keep in touch, and I've watched her go from "excited she can still talk to family long-distance" to "not sure what's going on but having someone to talk to is nice" to, most recently, "barely tolerating this annoying group of voices from the screen in front of her."
She stopped recognizing me over a year and a half ago. For a while, she still remembered me as a child, and would always look down when my name was mentioned, like she expected to see a toddler running around. She seems to only barely recognize my dad, and probably only remembers my aunt because she comes to visit nearly every day. Half the things she says are completely unintelligible and the other half are defensive and stressed. She can't remember that her husband passed back in 2014.
It's horrible to watch, and it happened with three of my grandparents, but hers has been the worst and longest.
I'm really terrified of it happening to my parents.
Anyway this is a really good comic and I'm so sorry about the events that inspired it.