Adventures in Dementia in 2020

Today my sister sat in on a telemedicine zoom call between our mother and her doctor. It turned out to be…interesting.

First, Mom told the doctor she had just signed up for a trip. When he asked for details, she said it was to St. Maarten. Incidentally, we did take a trip there when I was in junior high - my mom was a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami and went to teach a weekend seminar there, and my dad and I went with her. They thought it would be a good experience for me but all I remember is that there was no air conditioning in the hotel and I was bored. So, for some reason my mother is revisiting 1987 in her mind?

Then she told him she likes her roommate. She lives in a studio apartment, and doesn’t have a roommate.

And finally, she asked my sister when they were going on the cruise. She did love cruises, and took at least two a year (with my dad, with friends, with her second husband, I even got dragged on a few and cruises are really not my thing), but it’s been probably five years since the last time she went on one. But apparently she thought she and my sister were going on one in the near future.

Mom has also gained a not insubstantial amount of weight. She’d been hypervigilant about her weight in the past twenty years, but I guess now that she’s forgotten she’s supposed to worry about that, she’s enjoying eating. I can’t grudge her that, as I’ve always been one who enjoys eating.

At least she’s happy. If you have to live in a fog, at least it can be a pleasant one.