"I have to go upstairs to take care of The Afghanistan."

[marble falls]

12. My great grandfather was clear minded and capable of living alone with one or another of the grand uncles or ...

... aunts checking in at the house every day and taking him to Sunday dinner into his late nineties.

The first sign there was a decline was he claimed Richard Nixon called him everyday. Clear minded about everything else, the family thought someone was pranking him and put a recorder on his phone hoping to catch whoever it was. Most days his phone never rang.

My great uncle Gene retired and came home to live with him when for the first time in anyone's memory that he didn't get his two buckets. one for sand and one for a seat, he didn't change the pattern of his brick sidewalk.

Dementia is a treacherous beast. At least it took Poppy gently. It totally wracked and ruined my grandfather for more than five years. Now my dad. who took loving care of his FiL (my grandfather), is in his nineties and starting to deteriorate very quickly. We got him to sell the house and car in the last two years, and have him in assisted living.

Sometimes old age is no blessing.