I have been struggling for a little over a year now… well, I may have been struggling for longer than that, but the past 16 or so months have been a particularly uphill struggle. My mom is now 82 (she would kill me if she knew I was sharing her age online… again!).
In late 2010, she moved to the Bay Area, where I live with my family. Since then, we started noticing clear signs that her memory wasn’t completely working the way it used to. When you consider this was someone who had a memory that I almost wished she didn’t have at some points (if you know what I mean), this was a major change for me as her only child.
In 2011, things got to a point where a change was clearly needed: her memory lapses got too scary and potentially dangerous to her and to others. She stopped driving and eventually, we found her a great independent living residence within 20 minutes from us and got her an amazing geriatrics doctor, Dr. Ann Chodos. Since then, her memory hasn’t gotten better but we have learned little bits here and there of how to cope with it.
The excerpt of the documentary Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter below gives some hints of things you can do as a child of a person experiencing clear signs of dementia and/or Alzheimer’s.
Besides this excerpt, you cannot find any more of the movie available online for streaming. Also unfortunately, the documentary can only be ordered here.
