Yeah, I think people think the dementia isn't at a bad stage if the person still knows who you are--but what's shocking about dementia is how many bad stages there are. And I know people are just trying to kindly ask how my mother is doing, which is so dear of them, but there's rarely a cheerful way to answer that question.

It's hard when they're verbal and also very hard when they're nonverbal. Each circumstance has its own challenges.

Thank you for reading. You're smarter than me--I never really thought about how this would become the go-to question.