Dementia

I’ve got a sweet little old senior that’s been riding for about a year now, and I’ve watched her dementia progress. I take her three times a week from her nursing home, to Senior Meals and back, and the home has no problem letting her venture off for lunch. She’s ambulatory and cognizant, just losing a few brain cells every day.

Lately she’s been asking me how long I’ve lived in Teton Valley as soon as she boards the bus and is strapped into her seat. I tell her ten years (or is it eleven, I can’t remember). She then goes on to tell me she was born in Pocatello, lived in Chicago before coming here, and loves Teton Valley. She tells me this every day she rides…

She has a great sense of humor about her memory loss, and sometimes it’s pretty comical. The other day she was convinced she was 181 years old, and who am I to correct her. I did tell her she looked wonderful for being that old.

Today when I picked her up at Senior Meals she asked how long I’d lived in the Valley. Wait, that was this mornings question, so I replied three days. Suddenly, something happened in her brain. She was convinced I was a new driver and wanted to be sure I knew how to get her back to her nursing home. I told her yes I did but then she started giving me directions anyway, pretty good ones actually. She asked me if I’d ever been to her nursing home and I said, yes, bus driver jim showed me the place this morning.

Sometimes this job has some amazing surreal moments :-)