Alzheimer's Disease Support Group

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. An early symptom is memory loss (amnesia), usually manifesting as minor forgetfulness that becomes pronounced with illness progression, with relative...

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what do you remember?

antjie
antjie
When someone important to you has Alzheimers, they change. A lot. I guess all of us here know that. What I would like to know is, once they're not there any more, what do you remember? The good old days when everything was going well, or the more recent period, when they were going downhill?

My grandma was a very difficult woman, and in her late 70's she had a stroke and had to be moved to an old age home. She turned into a real sweetheart. She flirted with the men in the home; she played scrabble with everybody; loved the attention she was getting; showed off her grandchildren - I am very grateful that I saw her in those last 2 years of her life, otherwise I would not have had happy memories of her.

I'm concerned that Mom's "confused old age" will take up more space than I would like in my memory bank.

Is anybody here in a position to comment?
annettearizona
annettearizona
When you are right there with the one with the disease-then you do see the changes and in a way you will remember those changes for a long time,but out of the blue-you will remember years back when things were the "usual" and I even bring them up to my father and sometimes I even get a smile from him ..maybe cause he remembered himself or the fact that I remembered!
deleted_user
deleted_user
In my experience, with time we tend to remember the best of people. So whether it's earlier years or later years we remember the good. There are some unhappy people who insist on holding a grudge and being miserable so they tend to remember the bad. But most cherish the best.
deleted_user
deleted_user
It is definitely harder for me than my mom...

She is aware of her declining mind and body...and picks "safe" topics of conversation...

I never correct her about things she shares...I do by best to enjoy her...sometimes she is so cute...

For me AD is a grief process...it is a cruel disease...losing my mom before she is gone...
annettearizona
annettearizona
I can tell how hard it is for my father though too-because he use to be able to do so much and now he feels sorry for himself because he can't do those things..so I continually try to find things for him to do :)