My grandmother has early-stage dementia. We recently moved her out of her home in Austin, Texas, where she had lived for the last 25 years. Unfortunately, my grandmother was also a hoarder, so that process was more difficult than it would have been in any case. She now lives quite happily in a semi-independent assisted living facility here in the Dallas area, but is progressively having difficulty with her memory.
Today, my mother, grandma, and I were all out of our separate domiciles for a girl's day. We do this often on Sundays. We had lunch, did a little shopping, and enjoyed Oz the Great and Powerful (which was fantastic). Everything was relatively uneventful except our shopping trip: we misplaced Grandma.
We shopped for some warm-weather clothes and a dress for Grandma to wear to my upcoming wedding, and once my grandmother's needs were met, my mom and I did a little shopping for ourselves. We asked my grandmother to sit in a chair just outside the fitting rooms while we quickly tried on our selections, and she happily assented. My mom and I were in there maybe 10 minutes. We were running late for our movie, so my mom's plan was to get Grandma, head to the register, and pay for her selections while I put back the items we didn't want.
She walked out of the fitting rooms and discovered, to her horror, that my grandmother's chair was empty.
Panicked, she quickly walked back to the section we had perused earlier in search of her errant mother. She called out in both the fitting rooms in the back of the store as well as the restroom with no success.
While all this was happening, I walked up to the cash register, where my grandmother was patiently sitting out of sight behind a support pillar. I asked her where my mom was and Grandma told me she had lost sight of us while we were shopping and looked all over to find us without luck. She had no memory of agreeing to wait in her chair for a few minutes while we tried on clothes. The kind ladies at the front said she had wandered up there a few minutes prior.
I quickly flagged down my mother, who was beginning to become frantic, and let her know my grandma was safe.
Apparently we can't leave Grandma anywhere out of our sight anymore - she may wander off.
It wasn't till I was retelling the story to a couple of friends this evening at dinner that I realized that saying, "So, we lost my grandmother today," and following it with a giggle is perhaps a bit morbid and uncomfortable without a back-story.
/facepalm
Today, my mother, grandma, and I were all out of our separate domiciles for a girl's day. We do this often on Sundays. We had lunch, did a little shopping, and enjoyed Oz the Great and Powerful (which was fantastic). Everything was relatively uneventful except our shopping trip: we misplaced Grandma.
We shopped for some warm-weather clothes and a dress for Grandma to wear to my upcoming wedding, and once my grandmother's needs were met, my mom and I did a little shopping for ourselves. We asked my grandmother to sit in a chair just outside the fitting rooms while we quickly tried on our selections, and she happily assented. My mom and I were in there maybe 10 minutes. We were running late for our movie, so my mom's plan was to get Grandma, head to the register, and pay for her selections while I put back the items we didn't want.
She walked out of the fitting rooms and discovered, to her horror, that my grandmother's chair was empty.
Panicked, she quickly walked back to the section we had perused earlier in search of her errant mother. She called out in both the fitting rooms in the back of the store as well as the restroom with no success.
While all this was happening, I walked up to the cash register, where my grandmother was patiently sitting out of sight behind a support pillar. I asked her where my mom was and Grandma told me she had lost sight of us while we were shopping and looked all over to find us without luck. She had no memory of agreeing to wait in her chair for a few minutes while we tried on clothes. The kind ladies at the front said she had wandered up there a few minutes prior.
I quickly flagged down my mother, who was beginning to become frantic, and let her know my grandma was safe.
Apparently we can't leave Grandma anywhere out of our sight anymore - she may wander off.
It wasn't till I was retelling the story to a couple of friends this evening at dinner that I realized that saying, "So, we lost my grandmother today," and following it with a giggle is perhaps a bit morbid and uncomfortable without a back-story.
/facepalm
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