I did a thing today! [View all]

And I don't know if I should be proud of myself, or feel sad, so I'm cycling between the two.

Back story:

Second marriage for both me, 75, and the wife, 80. Married in 1988.

The scourge of advancing age is upon us, well, one of us anyway.

Wife's mother ended up in cloud cuckoo land and spent the last 10 years or so of her life in sheltered care.
(Alcohol use was blamed for the brain rot.)

Wife's first husband is now wheelchair bound, in sheltered care, also off with the pixies.

But it gets worse - wife's oldest son, now has dementia and is in sheltered care, 2,000 km away.

And worse - wife has slowly developed all the signs of dementia too.

I'm guessing there is a big genetic component at work there, but there is nothing in my side, so I'm in the clear. Just strung out looking after an 80 year old lady who is unpredictable and can throw temper tantrums like a 5 year old.

Anyway, the 'thing' I did today:
Collected a lot of childhood photos and more recent ones of the past life the son had, scanned and printed copies, put them into a photo album with captions, and sent it off today.

The aim is to try to refresh some of his memories, if that is possible.
He likes photos, his son - who lives locally to his dad - tells me.

So yeah, I did a thing, hopefully for the good.

The whole dementia thing though, surprisingly common in Australia, and very much a taboo subject from the vibes I'm getting from some family members who should care, but act like they don't.