As dementia progressed, from the Newspapers, translated…
My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease since 2005, it’d been, over thirteen years now, and these years, it’d hit my older and younger brothers, and their families the hardest, during the daytime, they both worked, and at night, they’d needed to, care for mother, two years ago, I’d worked for twenty-five years, and was considering whether or not I should, retire. Because my mother could no longer care for herself, acted like a child, soiled herself, and after careful considerations, I’d, sent in my resignation, and returned home, to be with my mother.
As I got home, mom became like a child every single day, clung tightly onto me. Even it was just, for a bathroom break, she’d waited for me outside the doors, every time I’d gotten out of her sight, she’d started, looking for me constantly, and in after a month’s time, I’d become, too stressed out, too fatigued, and after a period of time, I just, couldn’t, take it any longer, I’d started looking online for help, and finally, I’d found the “Daycare facility” sponsored by the county government of Pingdong.
In the mornings, the pickup bus took my mother to class, and in the afternoons, the bus would, drop her off, allowing me to have my own time. Every morning, after I’d, helped my mother groom herself, I’d fed her, then, waited for her, to get lifted to the daycare center.
I’d used the time that my mother was in daycare, to enrich myself, expecting, to return back to the workforce again, and, as the bus dropped my mother off in the afternoons, I’d prepared a snack for her. Then, I’d, helped, bathe her, but, my mother would, dodge it, so, after the snacks, I’d allowed her to have some time to rest, so long as she’d wanted to go to the bathrooms, I’d, followed her into the bathrooms, run her a bath, helped her get cleaned, she’d fought me for it, and I’d lied to her, “You’re going to Taipei to a wedding, so you needed to get cleaned!” And if she still fought, I’d told her, “On tomorrow’s wedding, you’re, walking the bride out, so, you’d needed to, smell good”, this happens, every single day.
My mother often fought to not take her medications too, I’d told my mother, that what I was administering to her was something that makes her brain clearer, so she can remember more and more, and I was able to, trick her into taking her meds.
My mother loved riding in busses, so, I’d taken her often on the busses and other public transportations, traveled all over the south, and because she couldn’t walk, we’d taken the cabs or the busses everywhere, and after I took her home, she’s always, in a good mood!
So, there’s, that need of LYING, coaxing the demented elderly into doing things s/he was supposed to, and, at this stage, this would be, the only way, to make sure the elderly gets cleaned up, and, this person used the tricks, to get her own mother to comply, and because the mother is progressing, the caretaking responsibilities, I imagine, would only, become more and more difficult.1