I was fortunate to be in a position to visit her in Memory Care at least once a week during that period so I got to observe her slow descent up close my self.

This isn't on-topic of US Policy, but what the heck...

My mom had the bad luck that we really spotted it just before COVID. At first it was mild. She was in independent living, but she used the community van, and relied on their meal prep. We got her moved, and visited her or called her fairly regularly. At one point, the facility called and said that she was requiring more attention than could be given in IL. So we moved her to AL. Lots of word finding, sticky notes everywhere. She started to be concerned that people were coming into her room and taking her things. During COVID we couldn't really visit her**. The dementia accelerated, and they had to move her to MC while they were in a lock-down. The last time I visited before she had her stroke, we were there for an hour before she realized who we were. She often wouldn't recognize my voice on the phone.

Donnie is nowhere near that, as near as I can tell. I think some word finding, and he easily wanders off-topic when speaking (often seeming to forget what the topic was, and never returning to it). So, yeah...I think I'm seeing signs of dementia. But, again, I'm just a guy whose mom had dementia, and had to watch the decline.




**Plus 1poorlady had cancer, and was in chemo for a while. Nuked her immune system for the better part of a year, so we played keep-away with her. Probably overly cautious, but whenever we went out we stripped in the garage (leaving the clothes in the washer), and showered before we would check on her. With COVID running around, and people dying in droves, we were hyper-careful. Which meant no visiting mom, either.