Maureen’s emotional memory remains intact; whilst her short-term memory is shot: a familiar tale with dementia.  You only have to see her in a maternal role to see that she is still the ‘full shilling’ in that mode.  When she is in the company of young children she comes into her own and has no misgivings about getting things wrong.   Whenever either of her sons comes to see her she goes into hostess mode to convince them that her stroke recovery is well underway.

She must have gone into overdrive yesterday when her youngest son popped in for a couple of hours.  He said that she never stopped talking: since he went she has never stopped sleeping!  It’s been over 24 hours since his departure and she’s been asleep for most of the time.  She keeps telling me that she is tired and all she wants to do is sleep.  I have learned in the past to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’.  Usually it takes three days to recover from a visit of her sons.   Maureen has long forgotten that her son came yesterday and has no idea what has caused her exhaustion.