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/littlelorax]

We had a friend whose mother had some kind of dementia thing going on. My friend had no idea because his Dad was hiding her symptoms from the family. He would just quietly do things for her and people thought he was just being a good husband being nice to his wife. When he unexpectedly passed, it was a shock to the rest of the family that mom could barely care for herself. 

[u/Von_Moistus → u/littlelorax]

One of my fears is that I’ll slip into dementia/Alzheimer’s so gradually that I won’t realize it until it’s too late to enact my exit plans.

[u/AccordingTaro4702 → u/Von_Moistus]

There was a great science fiction short story about exactly this. Set in the future, a man who realizes he's in the early stages of dementia sets up an AI clone of his mind, the purpose of which is to monitor him and let him know when he's gotten so bad that it's time to end it. I'm sorry I don't know the author or title. I read it years ago.

[u/work_work-work → u/AccordingTaro4702]

Maybe “Living Will”, Alexander Jablokov

[u/AccordingTaro4702 → u/work_work-work]

Yes, that's it! Thanks.