President Who?

I grew up in a family who expressed their patriotism to our country. Both of my grandfathers served in the military, as well as several Aunts and Uncles. Part of being patriotic is exercising your right to vote. My parents set that example for us from the time we were small kids and expressed the importance of voting. I remember both mom and dad going to the polls on election day, and returning proudly wearing their "I Voted" stickers.

Today was the first time that I can ever remember that my mom has not participated in election day. She is not even aware that today IS election day. If you ask her who the President of the United States is, she will not have an answer for you. If you ask her who is running for President, she will not know. When shown pictures (at UCLA) of our President and pictures of some of the most famous past Presidents, mom did not recognize who they were.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise to some, seeing how one of the candidates for President is a Mormon. One of my mom's obsessive behaviors of dementia is an obsession with her religion. One would think that she would be aware that someone of her faith is running for President. But mom is completely oblivious to it all.

Mom has missed all of the media propaganda surrounding the election. She does not watch TV. She cannot comprehend what is on the screen, so she doesn't watch. The only time she gets on the internet is to check her email; even then, she has a difficult time sorting out junk from personal emails. In fact, I'm not even certain how often she checks her email these days. Needless to say, she hasn't been reading up on politics via internet. Nor does she read the newspaper or magazines anymore. She doesn't answer most phone calls, and when she does, she is very confused and cannot comprehend most of what people are saying to her over the phone. She does not engage in most conversations that we have when together as a family/group or one-on-one. She can only talk about what is on her mind. She cannot comprehend most of what we say.

It is not surprising, then, that she is oblivous to what is going on in the world around her. The only world she lives in is her own, which is being ruled by dementia. She is rapidly losing her knowledge and awareness of everything around her.

Dementia is a beast.