Category Archives: aging parents

Family Stories – Truth or Fiction?

I knew from a young age that Maritimers were tellers of tall tales by sitting around the kitchen table in my grandparents’ Lunenburg waterfront home listening to my mother and her siblings tell detailed, interesting stories. I understood some of these were yarns as a result of my father’s occasional debunking remarks. I also caught …

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Remembering Mom Part 3 – How to Help Your Dementia Loved One

Realizing your parent or any loved one may have dementia is a tough one.  I live with the regretful feeling that I should have recognized it sooner.  At the time I was absorbed with my own life drama, but that’s no excuse.  My hope is that what I learned as a daughter, observer and eventual …

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Remembering Mom Part 2 – The More Serious Side of Dementia

In the summer of 2013 I decided to take an apartment with my mother because I had noticed that she was forgetting simple things like where she put her cheque book, or whether she’d paid the cable bill.  I wanted to spend some time with her so I could observe her behaviour and decide if …

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Remembering Mom – the Funny Side of Dementia

From 2013 through most of 2014 I was my mother’s full-time caregiver, living with her to assess her failing health.  I took her to numerous doctors to be eventually diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia by one and Alzheimer’s Disease by another, and I eventually placed her in a wonderful nursing home. I learned a great …

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