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Barbs Honeycutt's avatar

dementia is a tough beast to tackle, and it impacts those around more than the person. Being copied (especially if you get an extra cleaning hand, a peaceful moment at your laptop, or a healthy diet) is not that bad... or at least it's better than a scared person not remembering who you are or where they live.

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Debbie | Behind Shoji Doors's avatar

You're right, the stage of dementia that Okasan is currently in is way better than later stages. Still not easy to live with at times 😂

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Stefania Magnani's avatar

I found this post by chance and... It was such a lovely reading. Thank you for sharing!

Dementia is an ugly beast. Your mother in law is a bit like a child now, it takes patience, and you have it.

About your ex room mate... Well, a nightmare! Sooner or later I'd have exploded!

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Debbie | Behind Shoji Doors's avatar

Thank you Stefania for stopping by and for your kind words. I guess I did explode, internally. But in retrospect, I think exploding externally would have been better!

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Jill Hart's avatar

the vagaries of aging... It is kind of interesting that you have a pattern of people in your life that copy you. (annoying though it may be) and living in Japan but not liking rice is a HUGE challenge!! kind of like living in Italy and not liking pasta or Spain and not eating pork - or visiting my dad and not liking seafood 🤣

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Debbie | Behind Shoji Doors's avatar

Yeah, if you're Japanese I don't think you even have a choice whether you like rice or not 😂 the dementia really helped in this situation though, because by lunch time, she'd forgotten her rice aversion 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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Mark Thomas's avatar

Debbie, this is just… wow. I never usually know what to say on posts like this but it's such a beautiful, funny, gut-punch of a piece... I just had to. (And I'm also cracking up at the rice betrayal 🤣) It’s such a tender and honest window into your world, and I'm obviously also very thrilled you used my pancake photo to help tell this story, too!! You’ve got such a gift for finding light and grace in the hard stuff.

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Debbie | Behind Shoji Doors's avatar

Thank you Mark ❤️ such kind words, I appreciate it! And thanks again for sharing your pic with me!

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Jack Krown's avatar

An excellent window into your day. Effortlessly written.

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Debbie | Behind Shoji Doors's avatar

This one did come out very easily!

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