The title says it all. Yesterday when I visited mum she didn't know who I was. I had suspected that she wasn't 100 percent sure who I was on the previous couple of visits, but yesterday she said 'You are my sister, aren't you?' Of course my natural reaction was, 'no, I'm your daughter, silly,', probably the least helpful way of putting things but it just came out. She accepted me as her daughter for the rest of the visit, during which she was continuously hallucinating that her brothers and sisters were in the room and she was arguing with them (the last one died two years ago). Then she gripped my hand and said, 'Don't be upset when I die, it isn't the end just a beginning to something else.' Quite startling and poignant.
I have such a mixture of feelings. Some of you know that my mum and were very close and that she turned against me when the dementia really kicked, with physical and constant verbal abuse. Part of me is glad that is now over even if it is at the price of her not recognizing me. It sounds silly but I'm also shocked at how quickly things change, even though it hasn't been quick...a year and a half since since sectioning and formal diagnosis. I suppose because I haven't seen her every day like I used to it seems quicker. The stages seem pretty fluid but I am guessing this means she has well and truly entered the severe stage now.
I have such a mixture of feelings. Some of you know that my mum and were very close and that she turned against me when the dementia really kicked, with physical and constant verbal abuse. Part of me is glad that is now over even if it is at the price of her not recognizing me. It sounds silly but I'm also shocked at how quickly things change, even though it hasn't been quick...a year and a half since since sectioning and formal diagnosis. I suppose because I haven't seen her every day like I used to it seems quicker. The stages seem pretty fluid but I am guessing this means she has well and truly entered the severe stage now.