Hello!
I’ve grown up in the same building my entire life, and a very energetic, albeit not always kind woman lives on the first floor right by the elevator. She would always stand by the elevator with the door open and talk with the rest of our neighbors, so she is well known within our building as one of the oldest residents, having lived here for so long. She has 2 sons and only one that visits her for a bit about once a week. They live a few blocks away and bike to the building, but only really drop by about 30 mins once a week before departing.
The last few months, she’s been acting incredibly strangely. She’s been taking loaves of bread and throwing slices onto her doorstep in front of the elevator to “feed to pigeons” (this is inside a Queens apartment in NYC), wearing shoes on the wrong foot, stuffing toilet paper up her nose, wearing her clothes entirely wrong, talking gibberish, and crying and screaming at random. She also no longer remembers who I am and keeps asking why people are afraid of her and attests that she is fine. She clearly isn’t though, she has lost an immense amount of weight and gone from a bright feisty woman to a shell. I’m not really sure what to do, as she clearly has family checking up on her, but I worry they aren’t clear on the situation as they don’t see her that often, and there are moments where she seems relatively “normal”. I don’t want to be insensitive and breech a topic that might not be any of my business, so do I just keep myself out of it?
Tldr: I suspect my neighbor has dementia. She has family visiting her once a week, but I worry for her well-being at this stage, especially as she is living alone. Do I intervene, if so, how? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve grown up in the same building my entire life, and a very energetic, albeit not always kind woman lives on the first floor right by the elevator. She would always stand by the elevator with the door open and talk with the rest of our neighbors, so she is well known within our building as one of the oldest residents, having lived here for so long. She has 2 sons and only one that visits her for a bit about once a week. They live a few blocks away and bike to the building, but only really drop by about 30 mins once a week before departing.
The last few months, she’s been acting incredibly strangely. She’s been taking loaves of bread and throwing slices onto her doorstep in front of the elevator to “feed to pigeons” (this is inside a Queens apartment in NYC), wearing shoes on the wrong foot, stuffing toilet paper up her nose, wearing her clothes entirely wrong, talking gibberish, and crying and screaming at random. She also no longer remembers who I am and keeps asking why people are afraid of her and attests that she is fine. She clearly isn’t though, she has lost an immense amount of weight and gone from a bright feisty woman to a shell. I’m not really sure what to do, as she clearly has family checking up on her, but I worry they aren’t clear on the situation as they don’t see her that often, and there are moments where she seems relatively “normal”. I don’t want to be insensitive and breech a topic that might not be any of my business, so do I just keep myself out of it?
Tldr: I suspect my neighbor has dementia. She has family visiting her once a week, but I worry for her well-being at this stage, especially as she is living alone. Do I intervene, if so, how? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
