Dementia cover: Need versus want

WHEN I was younger, I associated dementia simply with old age, loss of memory and childlike behaviour. How bad can it be? Now that I have a front-row seat to the debilitation caused by dementia, I know much better.

My mother-in-law was diagnosed with vascular dementia when she was about 81 years old. A brain scan revealed multiple strokes through the years. She passed away last year, more than 10 years after the diagnosis. While she was relatively mobile until the end, dementia caused a dramatic change in personality from her normal urbane and gregarious self. Caregiving was a challenge.

My own mother now also suffers from dementia since a stroke some six years ago.