Flee screaming into the dark.

A couple of months ago, I put out a call for stories

This voice is from a 57-year-old woman who has numerous people in her family who have dementia. I must admit that when I first heard about some of her family’s incidents, I couldn’t believe it. “How can that actually happen?!” It can. Everything is possible.

Question: What is your relation to the person with dementia?

Answer: Grandchild, child, sister, aunt, cousin

Q: What form of dementia do they have? When and how did it start showing?

A: Hereditary behaviour variant frontotemporal dementia – various ages

How was your first interaction with them upon realizing they were different from before? Were you scared, confused, shocked, sad,…?

Scared, then sad.

My grandfather broke my jaw when I tugged on his pants leg and asked if I could feed the goldfish. Then my cousin tried to drown my other cousin in the pond. Then my uncle killed the cat who was eating the goldfish.

No one fed the goldfish.

How does the disease affect the way you interact with that person?

I avoid them.

What would you tell people who just found out somebody they care about has dementia?

Flee screaming into the dark.

What is the funniest/scariest thing the other person has done?

Walked through a large crowd of young Black men yelling “I am a goin’ home Monkey Boy.”

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