bags packed

I had an interesting phone call from Mum's friend P - she and her husband pick Mum up once a year and treat her to a week in Somerset. She rang to confirm that they're going to pick Mum up on the 23rd October this year. She's never felt the need to ring me before, but she told me that she was VERY concerned about Mum's memory. We discussed some of Mum's various slip-ups of late - it was some comfort to have someone else notice these things.

These same friends stayed with Mum for a night last month on their way to an event in London - Mum greeted them at the door with her bags packed, thinking that she was going away despite having spoken to them on the phone just that morning to arrange their over-nighter. P said it was deeply upsetting to witness her humiliation.

Still, I don't feel so alone in this anymore.

havoc

Mum is wreaking more havoc - I swear she's getting worse every day. Today she:

1) Was unable to write my address out consistently (she can't read her own writing)
2) Overlooked vital post when she's meant to be telling me about each item that arrives
3) Told everyone that she was suddenly going away for 2 weeks from Wednesday after a conversation she obviously made up in her head to cover over a blank in her memory - the trip is (and always was) in October...

It would have been nice for her to acknowledge the "remote control" guide that I spent a whole day designing/printing/laminating for her, but it was just another item of post she neglected to inform me had arrived. Try as I might, I can't get her to even thank me for making the effort - why do I bother?