Mom was getting ready for bed when I happened to look down the hall towards her room. I could see Mom through the open doorway and she appeared to be a bit distressed, so I called down the hall asking was she alright. Mom motioned for me to come to her so I walked down the hall into her room.

Once I stepped inside her doorway Mom looked at me and said “What happened to me?” Puzzled I asked “What is wrong Mom, why are you asking that?” She looked a bit stunned and said “I can’t remember anything! Something must be wrong with me.” Then she turned to look in the mirror over her dresser and as she stared at her reflection she said in an alarmed voice “I looked in the mirror a minute ago and I did not recognize myself! How did I get to look like this? I don’t remember when it happened.”

I am never sure at times like this if Mom is having a very lucid moment or a very confused one. If she is stepping out of confusion into a world that she no longer recognizes because she was not mentally present for it or if she is slipping further away.

In this instance I sensed it might be the former so I tried to make light of it so as to ease her alarm and I said “Mom you got this way over time, you are eighty years old and I think you look great for eighty.” She replied “Well you must be drunk because I look awful! I don’t even recognize myself.” Then she turned to me and said “I never would have known it was me if you showed me a picture of myself now.”

Then she asked “How come I don’t remember?” I reminded her that she has an issue with her memory but that she is seeing a doctor and taking medications that are supposed to help. Mom moved to look in the mirror again, still with a look of disbelief on her face and said “Well I hope I forget that I look like that!”