We are here for a few days looking after my mother in law while brother in law and wife have a holiday. One of my sisters in law takes over on Wednesday.
MiL presents very differently to my mother, My mum was very unhappy at home because of all the things she thought the neighbours were doing, thought any problem she encountered must be someone else's fault and put herself at risk by going out to the local pub.
Mil is very happy at home, and seems to have no awareness of her condition. She has very little understanding, and obviously can no longer read. She was an academic and she knew something had gone awry with something to do with exams, but I don't think she understood my explanation. She can do little for herself, needs guiding with eating, though once she's got the knife and folk sorted she's ok, and guiding with getting dressed. Husband sent me upstairs again today as he thought she'd had a poo accident. It was just a muddle over clothes. She wanted socks but couldn't remember the word and when I found them for her had no memory that they were hers.
She lives in a detached house at the end of a made up road with a large garden. it's gradually falling into disrepair. Husband has come with some tools to fix things, but BiL seems to have taken the keys to the shed so we can't get at the tools to sort out the patio area where a wisteria has fallen down and it's become very overgrown with self-seeded trees etc.
The crisis will probably come this winter when the weather gets cold, but in the meantime I'll guess we'll stagger on.