Grandma

A bit about her, she's in her late 80's and has seen much in her life. From WWII, Japanese occupation of China, to the communist takeover of China, to which she barely escaped with my dad, who was an infant at that time, and my granpa. Until recently, she made it through stomach cancer, and that wasn't even the first time that she had been troubled by major illness. I love her to death, she has basically been the only one who has steadily nurtured me since I was an infant, there were a few gaps in those years, but I basically consider her to be my mother.

Lately, she has been troubled by some symptoms of dementia, mostly brought on by old age. She's not at the point where she cannot recognize her family members, but her mood swings would be more often, and she'd have really bad short-term memories. She has also started to get into more fights with my grandpa, over her suspecion of him having an affair! (It's kind of funny if you think about it!) Basically, there are good and bad moments when it comes to her dementia, and the rest of the family is just trying to learn and adjust to it.

I just try to take it all in stride, and try to laugh at the funny moments. Like this morning, when my aunt in N.J. called her up to say hello, grandma went ahead and cried to her about how she thinks that grandpa has been neglecting her, calling her a schizophrenic, all while thinking that she was talking to my stepmother! I love the funny "oops!" moments!