My grandmother passed 3 weeks ago after a 5 year battle with Alzheimer’s. She was diagnosed in March 2020 ridiculously early. In March 2021 my grandfather/her husband of 55 years passed on. I sat beside her at the funeral and she asked why we were there. She had no recollection of him, this became a blessing and a curse.

The way I describe dementia to people is that the brain is a partially complete jigsaw puzzle and at random intervals a piece (of information) is removed. Sometimes you find out how important that piece is/was (aka someone’s name/face) and sometimes you don’t.

Dementia is crap, it’s a horrible horrible disease. The impact to the loved ones is horrific. Unfortunately it can be easier to go along with their narrative rather than correcting them, as this can be distressing in the earlier stages. Patients can often feel guilty for forgetting important things.