What to do...

when one's aged mom is failing physically and losing her memory? I don't know. One step at a time, I guess.

Our mom, who will turn 95 next month, took a bad fall about five weeks ago. She was unconscious in her apartment for at least a whole day, and possibly from the night before. Even though she lives in a senior apartment complex where there's a cord to pull if you need emergency help and someone is supposed to check on residents who miss meals, no one found her till about 8:30 in the evening. Miraculously, she didn't break anything, but she doesn't remember much and I suspect she may have had another TIA (a mini-stroke).

She's out of hospital and in a convalescent hospital now. We have no idea how long she'll be there or what we'll do with her when she's released. Obviously she can't return to her apartment. She can walk only a little, a real bummer for someone who used to love to take long walks, especially when she had to relinquish her driver's license after she wrecked her car backing out of her former apartment complex.

Mom is a social animal if there ever was one, revels in her many visitors, even though she cannot remember who visited and when. She seems fairly lucid at times, then something switches in her head and she becomes a whining, weepy child asking to be taken home. This woman has been a strong presence in my life for all my 62 years so seeing her in such a pathetic, dependent state really shocks me.

Tomorrow my sister Catherine and I have a meeting with Mom's physical therapist, social worker, et al. to figure out the next step.