. The trouble is she thinks she is in the 30/40 age range and calls all other ladies her age "Old Ducks" so we would never have been able to actually tell her where she was going because she just wouldn't have understood why someone the age she thinks she is would go into somewhere like this and would have put up a hell of a fight.
Daisy, I had to smile ..because MIL was the same ..always commenting about the `old ladies `she had to sit with when she went to lunch club .. despite the fact that many were younger, and certainly more mentaly agile than she was! As time went on she certainly became younger in her own mind .. ..she has been widowed for well over 30 years, and never wanted another relationship ...and to our surprise suddenly developed a bit of an eye for the younger men ..was always a bit coy and flirty, and one son who returned from overseas for a visit and stayed with mum for a while was quite shocked to be cast in the role of boyfriend! She can always tell you her age ...but now it doesnt seem to mean anything in logical terms (she wil ask where is my Dad?)
I cant figure out where she thinks she is ... I think she is casting herself in the role of carer, and perhaps mistress of the house ..because she is cleaning and polishing ..general organising things..for the elderly folk! She showed us cushions she had embroidered (!) ... and had woven an amazing fiction around her present reality. Apparently she is so busy going to work that she hardly has time to do the chores and the gardening! We did point out that she was lucky to have a gardener ....
She has started to dress up, having abandoned smart suits and lovely dresses for her gardening gear for years .....We took all her glam clothes as well as her trousers and tops ..and suddenley the dresses stockings and jewellry are coming out! We took her jewelery box in so she can can indulge her fantasies.
I am glad to say wherever she is in her mind, on the whole seems to be a fairly happy place : a mixture between childhood and work days; with a little bit of present day that intrudes from time to time. But she certainly would be shocked if she thought she needed to live with other elderly folk!
As you say she has no concept of her biological age (but aren`t we all still tenneagers at heart?)