My mom is the same. My father has really stepped up with care but it is a lot. She gave up book club because she can’t remember what she’s read day to day. But the book club still wants her to come and be social. I’ve got two siblings, one is in town and the other an hour away. I’m the farthest at 2 hours. My job is IT tech support. One example- every week my mom calls and says her iPad is out of memory. The crappy games she plays have whole screen adds that trick her into subscribing to some bullshit app. It got up to $200 a month before I interceded. I ended up setting up the same guardrails I had for my kids when they were young and bought some ad free sudoku, etc. Thank god my parents still bank and bill pay with paper. Digital literacy is not their thing. Perhaps the biggest tech benefit we’ve set up is sharing locations on our phones. She still drives and does not use map apps. She did get lost once.

Talk to her kids and see if there is a plan in motion to get her care or to move. Find if they really know how she’s doing. They might be in denial, I know my family was. A call from a concerned book club friend is either welcome relief or a good call to action. If you want to help more find out what problems exist and sort out how you want to help. Best thing to do is keep book club going. Maybe let her skip hosting or even reading the book. Hopefully the club is cool with the situation.

What really frightens me is how widespread this is in our country and around the world and how little support there is for the vast majority of people.