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.. my mom's mom..

Is in a nursing home with dementia and i heard she is doing badly and getting angry.. i think about calling her but i rarely do 🙁 it's been awhile.. i wasn't close with my mom's family.. they resented my dad .. but her dad was the one who forced her to come to America and then marry my dad .. because her dad wanted to come here himself.. which they did eventually .. my few memories of her are going to visit her friend's chocolate shop.. to this day if i smell a chocolate factory i remember being there, also eating ice cream cones and watermelon on the back porch .. and her locking us in the basement once..
DrWatson · 70-79, M
I know this is not the same situation, but perhaps there is something worthwhile to be gleaned from it.

My mother-in-law was in a nursing home with dementia. I did not exactly have positive feelings toward her. But my wife and I would call her from time to time, and we visited her a few times when we were in town ( several hundred miles away from where my wife and I live.)

When she eventually died, I was at least able to say to myself that I had done the right thing. It does not mean I have to think any better of her. But I feel at peace about my part. (Which to be honest, is all due to my wife's initiatives!)

I am sorry you are dealing with this.
DrWatson · 70-79, M
@SStarfish That makes it hard. 🙁
@DrWatson i called her but it was hard to talk to her.. she kept talking to people in the hall.. saying nobody wanted to talk to her 🤐
DrWatson · 70-79, M
@SStarfish Nevertheless, congratulations on making that call!
MarineBob · 56-60, M
My father-in-law is in a home, I don't like him , won't go see him but I do pay the bill every month
@MarineBob i see 🙁
sarabee1995 · 26-30, F
Wow, so my mom's mom also develope dementia (Alzheimer's in her case). She did eventually pass from it and the problems that come along with. 😔

Also, as in your situation, my mom's mom was not from here. She met and married my mom's dad while he was in the US Army in Germany. They married over there and when his was rotated back to the States, she had to come with. They had a baby (my mom) back here and around the time she was in middle school, my grandfather (mom's dad) split and left them with nothing. My Omi ("grandmother" ... mom's mom) stayed here to raise her American daughter but had a long, lonely life. So sad. And eventually got dementia and passed a few years ago.

She was around long enough that I have many very fond memories of her, including sneaking out just the two of us to get ice cream cones.

Please call, or better yet, visit if you can. We owe so much to those who brought us into this world. 🫂
Wol62 · 51-55, M
I know you might not believe me but I am so sorry about the way she is doing.
Wol62 · 51-55, M
@SStarfish You will and you are a good grandchild, don't beat yourself up over this.
@Wol62 ok 🙁
Wol62 · 51-55, M
@SStarfish Come on, where is the error on your part? There isn't one.
swirlie · 31-35, F
For what it's worth for your peace of mind, by the time someone who's been diagnosed by a Psychiatric Physician as having dementia which in your grandmother's case would likely be 'vascular dementia' ...AND she is getting angry at everyone all the time, rest assured that she would not recognize you by name if you saw her face to face.

She would very likely remember everything you've stated in your post here which you've experienced in your childhood, but she would not remember you visiting her recently, even if you went to see her every single day. Her being able to remember her distant 'past' from 30 years ago is what often fools us into believing that they're getting better, when in fact they are progressively deteriorating with each passing day while maintaining a very predictable pattern of decline.

The reason for her remembering your childhood with her (assuming she remembers), is because that information is stored in her long-term memory, not her short-term memory. In a dementia patient, it is their short-term memory that is failing, not their long-term memory.

But even if she remembers her 'past' with you as a child, she wouldn't necessarily connect the dots to you being her grandchild, nor would she likely remember your name.

When anger starts to set in, it isn't because they are angry at those around them, it is because they are angry at what they can remember from their own lives which they hated and never resolved, which is often illustrated by them speaking angrily to people in their lives who they had issues with, but who are not even alive today.

What the dementia patient will do is choose anyone in the room to project their anger onto, even though it is the deceased person's face in their mind that they can see.

 
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